ISLAMABAD – In a first, China, India and Pakistan will be part of amulti-nation counter-terror exercise in Russia in September, which willalso be joined by Russia and several other countries.

The military exercise will take place under the framework of ShanghaiCooperation Organisation (SCO), a China-dominated security grouping whichis increasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO, officials said.

They said the military drill will be held in the Ural mountains of Russiaand almost all SCO member countries will be part of it.

Officials said the main aim of the exercise, Peace Mission, will be toenhance counter-terror cooperation among the eight SCO member countries.

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 pushed by Russia while Pakistan’s entry into thegrouping was backed by China and Russia both. With expansion of thegrouping, SCO now represents over 40% of humanity and nearly 20% of theglobal GDP.

Pakistan feels that as an SCO member, it will be able to play a major rolein addressing 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 year,the drill was suspended following a tense standoff between their troops inDokalam.