BEIJING – Militaries of Pakistan and India will be part of a megaanti-terror drill in Russia next week which is being organised by theShanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) with an aim to expand cooperationamong the member countries to deal with terrorism and extremism.
The exercise is scheduled to take place from August20-29 at Chelyabinsk city in west-central Russia, official sources saidhere on Sunday.
About 300 servicemen from India and also around 100 Pakistani personnelwere the first to arrive in the Chelyabinsk Region aboard Ilyushin Il-76aircraft.
The exercise will be joined by all SCO member countriesincluding Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The drill, “Peace Mission”, will take place nearly three months after theSCO, in its annual summit in Chinese city of Qingdao, resolved to deepencooperation among their militaries to deal with threats of terrorism,extremism and separatism.
“The broad objective of the exercise is to boost cooperation among the SCOcountries to deal with challenge of terrorism and extremism,” said amilitary official.
On the sidelines of the exercise, military officials of the SCO countriesare likely to deliberate on ways to enhance cooperation to stop spread ofterrorist ideologies and eliminate factors and conditions that facilitateterrorism and extremism, the official said.
About 700 troops and over 100 pieces of military hardware of the ChinesePeople’s Liberation Army will take part in the Peace Mission-2018international counter-terror drills in the Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals,the press office of Russia’s Central Military District reported.
“On the part of the People’s Republic of China, the personnel of amechanized company, a mixed artillery battery, a command and logisticcompany, and also a Special Forces group have arrived for the drills, about700 servicemen in all.
Besides, over 100 pieces of military and special hardware have beendelivered by rail, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantryfighting vehicles, self-propelled howitzers, communications vehicles, andalso logistic support vehicles,” the press office said. practice range.
Overall, the Peace Mission-2018 drills will involve over 3,000 troops andabout 500 pieces of military hardware.
According to Indian media, it will be for the first time since Independencethat India and Pakistan will both be part of a military exercise, thoughthe armies of the two nations have worked together in UN peacekeepingmissions.
India and Pakistan were admitted as observers of the grouping in 2005 andthey were admitted as full members of the bloc last year.
The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, has emerged as one of the largesttransregional international organisations which accounts for almost 44 percent of the world population stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the IndianOcean and from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea. The aim of the SCO isto maintain peace,