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China, Russia, Central Asian states to stage joint anti-terror exercise China, Russia and four Central Asian countries agreed Wednesday to hold a joint military exercise against terrorism next year in Russia, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. The agreement was reached during a meeting in Beijing of defense ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security group comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The six nations signed a joint communique saying the event would be held in Russia. Ivanov told reporters the military drill was aimed at building safeguards against terrorist attacks and was not meant to threaten any country. "This is not targeted against any third country, especially a non-SCO member country," Ivanov said. "I want to emphasize that the SCO is not a military alliance. The charter of the SCO specifies that when faced with challenges and threats, especially new threats such as terrorism, we can use joint armed forces to deal with such threats." He said the purpose of the drill was to maintain the region's security, stability and development, adding the drills would be "very open and transparent". But neither Ivanov or any other officials could immediately say how many soldiers would participate or when next year the drill would take place. The only other details given were that the war games would be staged in the Volga-Ural military district, near Russia's border with Kazakhstan, and would involve the airforce. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Ivanov as saying the exercise could simulate one member country being attacked by armed groups, with the other countries coming to its aid. The SCO was founded in 1996 as a vehicle for inter-governmental cooperation in Central Asia and was spearheaded by Russia and China. Both countries have problems with Muslim separatists and sought cooperation from the former Soviet Central Asian states as some groups have used those nations as hideouts. Some observers believe the organization aimed to counterbalance the United States, which extended its military influence in the region with the war in Afghanistan and set up military bases in some Central Asian countries. Next year's exercises will be the first to involve all SCO members. Except for Uzbekistan, the other members held their first joint anti-terror exercise in 2003, with the first phase in Kazakhstan and the second in China. ---------------------------------------------------
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