Kazakhstan to host joint SCO antiterrorist exercise Sept 9-25.

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MOSCOW, August 31 (Itar-Tass) - Joint antiterrorist command and staff
maneuvers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) codenamed Peace
Mission-2010 will be held in Kazakhstan on September 9-25. More than 5,000
servicemen from the SCO countries will take part, an official of the
Russian Defense Ministry' Press Service told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
"Russia will send to the exercises more than 1,000 troops, 130 pieces
of military hardware, 130 motor vehicles and ten aircraft," the official
said.
The exercise will last for 17 days and will be divided into three
phases. They will begin with military-political consultations over
proposals for using SCO armed forces to settle crisis situations.
"The consultations will be held in Almaty," the official said.
The second and third phases (preparations for and simulation of a
joint antiterrorist operation) will be held at the training ground
Matybulak, the Zhambyl region of Kazakhstan. The active phase of the
maneuvers will be held on September 24.
The previous antiterrorist SCO exercise Peace Mission was held at the
Russian training ground Chebarkul, the Chelyabinsk region in 2007. The
Chinese Defense Ministry's Spokesman Geng Yansheng said in Beijing on
August 25, "the Peace Mission-2010, the seventh in a row, will be
dedicated to demonstrating the SCO countries' capabilities to counteract
to terrorism, separatism and extremism and their mutual trust and
pragmatic cooperation."
The agreement on holding the exercise Peace Mission-2010 was signed in
Bishkek in June 2007 and approved in a the joint communique at the session
of SCO countries' defense ministers in May 2008.
The SCO was set up in 2001. It comprises Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China. Iran, India, Mongolia and
Pakistan have an observer status.

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