China is willing to work with member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to ensure the SCO's crucial role as an anchor of stability at a time of turbulence and geopolitical changes, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said on Thursday.

General Dong told his counterparts from other SCO member states who came to Qingdao, Shandong province, for the organization's annual defense ministers' meeting that China is willing to work together with all member states to realize the founding purposes of the SCO, carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit", firmly safeguard international fairness and justice, jointly address security challenges, and promote steady and sustainable cooperation in defense and security fields, so as to provide stronger support for building a common homeland that features solidarity and mutual trust, peace and stability, prosperity and development, good-neighborliness and friendship, and fairness and justice.

At the meeting, all participants agreed to enhance strategic communication, push forward practical cooperation, and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability.

According to the Defense Ministry, defense chiefs from SCO member states, along with officials from the SCO Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, took part in the SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting, the 22nd of its kind, that was held on Wednesday and Thursday.