Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (C, front) attends the 17th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Government in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Oct. 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday called on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states to step up their cooperation in security, including the fight against threats such as terrorism, drugs, and extremism.

Li made the proposal while attending the 17th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government in the Tajik capital Dushanbe.

Li said the security issues facing regional countries are often intertwined and go beyond national borders, which requires a joint response.

A vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security should be pursued, Li said.

He spoke of the need to earnestly implement a cooperation program for combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, expand intelligence and information exchanges, and continue to carry out counter-terrorism exercises.

Li also called for ramped-up efforts to fight drug planting, processing, and trafficking to cut off funding for terrorist organizations.

He went on to say that cybersecurity cooperation should be strengthened to continue the crackdown on the spread of extremist ideology by extremists via the Internet or using information and communications technologies (ICT).

He also rallied support for the work of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, calling on the SCO member states to contribute more wisdom to the political settlement of the Afghan issues.

The SCO was established in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined as full members in 2017. The Council of Heads of Government meets annually to discuss the organization's multilateral cooperation strategy and priorities.