BEIJING – Pakistan and the other member states of the Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO), including China and India, will take part in a jointanti-terrorism exercise to be held this year by the grouping.
The decision to hold the joint exercise ‘Sary-Arka-Antiterror 2019’ wasannounced during the 34th meeting of the SCO’s Regional Anti-TerroristStructure (RATS) council held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the Xinhua newsagency reported.
The SCO, in which China plays an influential role, is also comprised ofPakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, andIndia. Pakistan and India were admitted into the bloc in 2017.
Delegations of the competent authorities of Pakistan, Kazakhstan, China,India, Russia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the RATSExecutive Committee attended the meeting.
Chaired by Russia, the meeting also declared plans to hold the first stageof the joint border operation “Solidarity 2019-2021,” the 7th meeting ofthe heads of the border services, and training workshops on identifying andpreventing the use of the Internet for terrorist, separatist and extremistpurposes.
RATS is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation ofmember states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism andextremism. It is headquartered in Tashkent.
The next meeting of the Council of the RATS SCO is scheduled to be held inRussia in September 2019.