ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, India, China and Russia, will participate in militaryexercise under the banner of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) andRussia would host the drills, international media reported on Wednesday.
Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made it official that Indiawould participate in a multi-nation military exercise to be conducted inRussia in September this year. Notably, the exercise will involve China andalso Pakistan.
The exercise in Russia is part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO). India, China, Russia and Pakistan, among several other countries,are part of the SCO — a bloc of largely Asian countries.
India is, for the first time, attending the defence ministers’ meeting atthe SCO being hosted in China. This will be first-ever exercise in whichIndian and Pakistan militaries will fight together in mock operations toeliminate terrorists, neutralise terror networks and thwart possibleattacks besides testing combat readiness.
Indian and Pakistan soldiers have operated together in the past on foreignlands while providing security or in convoy protection deployment aspeacekeepers under the United Nations. The exercise — “Peace Mission 2018”— is slated to be held in Russia’s Ural Mountains. It will begin inAugust-end and conclude in the first week of September.
The SCO was formed in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia andTajikistan. Now the grouping has eight full members, including India,Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Another four nations have been accorded “observer”status, while six others are “dialogue” partners.
Held once in two years, “Peace Mission 2018” will be the fifth edition ofthe multilateral exercise. However, this will be the first time for the twoneighbours as they became SCO members in June last year. Sources said Indiawill send a 200-strong contingent to Russia.
In China, Sitharaman said: “India enjoys excellent bilateral defencecooperation with a large number of SCO countries, especially with Russia,as well as with all of India’s Central Asian partners represented in theSCO.