THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2003
Russia, China begin joint anti-terror exercise
PTI
MOSCOW: Reflecting their concern about growing terrorist threats, Russia, China and four Central Asian nations on Wednesday began joint anti-terror military exercise in Kazakhstan, the first such operation under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
More than 1,000 soldiers from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan took part in the drill in Kazakhstan's border city of Ucharal as part of the first phase of the exercise that will continue till tomorrow, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
In this phase, soldiers launched a mock battle to "rescue" air passengers held by a gang of international "terrorists".
They evolved command interaction and joint operations planning for intercepting the "intruder aircraft" and forcing it to land, air dropping of troops for the hot pursuit of the terrorists and their destruction, RIA Novosti reported.
The second phase of the exercise will take place on August 11-12 in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region where soldiers will "fight terrorists" who have taken hostages in a camp.
Uighur separatists are operating in Muslim-dominated Xinjiang for several years. Chinese sources here said Uighur separatists and terrorists are getting safe-haven in Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, even after Islamabad's assurances to Beijing.
Officials said the exercise would help strengthen mutual trust and cooperation in the military field among member states, safeguard regional security and stability and increase coordinating capabilities in the fight against terrorists.
The SCO, a brainchild of Beijing, had been originally intended to band together Russia, China and Central Asian nations in order to contest the US's growing influence in Central Eurasia and also jointly tackle the threats of terrorism, separatism, extremism and drug trafficking.
At a summit meeting of the SCO in Moscow in May, the leaders of the six nations had decided to hold the anti-terror exercise in areas in Kazakhstan and China prone to attacks by international terrorists.
Russian envoy to SCO, Vorobiyov, said the joint Anti-Terror Centre of the SCO countries would become operational by January 1, 2004.
Uzbekistan has offered to locate the Centre in Tashkent. Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his talks with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov in Samarkand on Wednesday, welcomed this initiative.
According to earlier reports, the Centre was to be located in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
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