Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visits the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk region.

Russia and its allies in Asia should expand joint military exercises as they face a direct threat from attempts by the United States to expand its security influence in the region, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.

He was speaking at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a security grouping that includes Russia, India, China, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

"I believe that everyone present shares the opinion that the deployment of military infrastructure in the region by the United States and its allies is unacceptable," Shoigu said.

"Such intentions must be regarded as a direct threat to stability in the SCO space."

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SCO member states should expand the scope and geography of their military exercises, he told the meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana.

His speech highlighted Russia's intention to strengthen military ties with partners in Asia and resist any erosion of its influence there despite the intense demands on its army of the war it has been fighting for more than two years in Ukraine.

At home, Shoigu's position is under greater-than-usual scrutiny after the arrest of one of his deputies this week in a bribery scandal, a development that threatens to weaken him politically.

In his speech, he accused the US-led QUAD and AUKUS blocs of trying to reshape the security structure in the Pacific to suit themselves, and said that increasing pressure was being exerted on China over Taiwan.

Shoigu said the main threat in Central Asia came from "radical terrorist groups located in Afghanistan". He said the United States was working to restore influence in the region that it lost after the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan in 2021.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for killing more than 140 people at a concert hall near Moscow last month, and the United States said it was the group's Afghan network that planned the attack. Shoigu repeated Russia's assertion that Ukraine was behind it, an allegation that Kyiv has denied and Washington says is nonsense.

In Ukraine, Shoigu said foreign advisers were helping Kyiv prepare acts of sabotage on Russian territory, and that Ukraine was using Western weapons to attack Russian civilian infrastructure. He did not provide evidence to back up his assertions.

Russian, Chinese defense ministers tout close bilateral ties during meeting

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L) shakes hands with Minister of National Defense of the People's Republic of China Dong Jun on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Defense Ministers' meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Friday. 

The defense ministers of Russia and China have emphasized the close bilateral ties between the two nations even as the United States voices displeasure over China's stance on the Ukraine war.

China's Dong Jun met with Russia's Sergey Shoigu in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Friday during a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member nations, and both leaders made statements affirming their cooperation.

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"We are determined to implement all agreements reached at the highest level," the Russian defense chief said, according to an official statement.

The two sides, he said, generally agreed "on the fundamental issues of the current world order and pressing international problems."

Russia and China "are consistently working to build comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation" in a world where "new hotbeds of tension are emerging and things are getting worse in the existing ones. In fact, this is the result of the West's geopolitical escapades and selfish neocolonial activities," Shoigu said.

Meanwhile, China's Dong said it is "particularly important that the relations between our armed forces maintain a high dynamic and respond to the trends of the times," the Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The relationship between the two countries "is important for strategic stability on the planet," Dong said.

The declaration of close ties between China and Russia came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President President Xi Jinping, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party for "in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussions" on global issues.

The main thrust of the meeting was an attempt to find agreement on a broad range of topics and to "stabilize" the relationships between the two Pacific superpowers. but the issue of China's military relationship with Russia continued to be a sore point.

During the meeting, the State Department said Blinken "raised serious concerns with [Chinese] support to Russia's defense industrial base that is enabling Russia to prosecute its war against Ukraine and undermining European and transatlantic security."

"In my discussions today, I reiterated our serious concern about the PRC providing components that are powering Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine," Blinken told reporters in Beijing.

China, he said, is the top supplier of machine tools and microelectronics critical to Moscow's weapons production as it ramps up a defense industrial base that is "churning out rockets, drones, tanks, and other weapons" used by Russian President Vladimir Putin "to invade a sovereign country, to demolish its power grid and other civilian infrastructure, to kill innocent children, women, and men.

"Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China's support," the U.S. diplomat said.