Joint exercises of SCO countries

Experts and Special Operations Troops from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kirghizia have met in the Saratov Region for an international strategic and tactical drill. The decision to arrange it is by the National Antiterrorist Committee of the Shanghai  Cooperation Organisation (SCO). 

 The exercises are to be held in two stages: from August the 16th through the 23rd and from the 25th to the 28th. The exercises will practise  joint actions while conducting an investigation concerning an imaginary terrorist group. Law-enforcers of the three SCO member-states are to carry out a mock anti-terrorist operation in a place with large numbers of people.The programme of the exercises also envisages a meeting of the security service and special services leaders of the SCO countries. The SCO member-states are Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Within the SCO, these countries actively defend their region against separatism and terrorism. The forthcoming exercises are part and parcel of this activity, says the well-known Russian Orientalist Alexey Maslov: “The SCO was created to fight against terrorism. The latest meetings of the SCO leaders, this year and last, have proved that a number of borderline problems exists, first of all problems associated with terrorism. The most important element of the fight against terrorism is coordination of efforts.  For this reason, an anti-terrorist centre was organized to ensure such coordination. The scenario of the new exercises is to result in a much higher degree of coordination. The next step is creating a joint database of the terrorist groups and carrying out operations that could completely destroy terrorist bases on the SCO territories and beyond, for example, in Afghanistan”. 

Effective cooperation in the struggle against terrorism raises the clout of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.  It is not only power that matters here. Active interaction by the member-states in the economic and political fields has stirred up the interest of the other countries of the region in the work done by the SCO, with Pakistan, India, Mongolia and Iran having already announced their willingness to join the organization.