ISLAMABAD – In a first, arch-rivals India and Pakistan will be part of amulti-nation counter-terror exercise in Russia in September, which willalso be joined by China and several other countries.
The military exercise will take place under the framework of ShanghaiCooperation Organisation, a China-dominated security grouping which isincreasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO, officials said. They said themilitary drill will be held in the Ural mountains of Russia and almost allSCO member countries will be part of it. They further added that the mainaim of the exercise, Peace Mission, will be to enhance counter-terrorcooperation among the eight SCO member countries.
The officials said India’s participation at the exercise was confirmed byDefence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a meeting of SCO DefenceMinisters’ meeting in Beijing last week.
It will be for the first time since Independence that India and Pakistanwill both be part of a military exercise, though the armies of the twonations have worked together in UN peace keeping missions, they said.
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents ofRussia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
India and Pakistan were admitted as observers of the grouping in 2005. Boththe countries were admitted as full members of the bloc last year.
India’s membership was strongly pushed by Russia while Pakistan’s entryinto the grouping was backed by China. With expansion of the grouping, SCOnow represents over 40 per cent of humanity and nearly 20 per cent of theglobal GDP.
India feels that as an SCO member, it will be able to play a major role inaddressing the threat of terrorism in the region. It is also keen ondeepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its RegionalAnti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically deals with issuesrelating to security and defence.
India has been holding military exercise with China. The two countries arelikely to resume their bilateral military exercise in September. Last yearthe drill was suspended following a tense standoff between their troops inDoklam.