Some 4,000 troops from all eight Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) nations are participating in the SCO anti-terrorist command and staff drill called Peace Mission-2021 which started yesterday in Orenburg, Russia, and will run to Sept. to 25. The exercise was scheduled months before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, but it is viewed as timely by members, given regional concerns about terrorist capabilities increasing, should the Afghan situation not be stabilized.
The SCO joins China, Russia, India and Pakistan with four of the Central Asian nations: Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Its Heads of State summit will take place this week, on Sept. 16-17, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, with some attending in person, others virtually. The SCO was founded in June 2001 with the intent to coordinate security efforts in the region. Since then, economic development — a prerequisite for any sustainable security — has grown as a priority. SCO members may decide to add to its ranks the four nations which have applied for membership and currently participate as “observer states": Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia. Additionally, the nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey have affiliated themselves as “Dialogue Partners.”
China’s Global Times indulged in a little bragging on their participation in the Peace Mission, since China was the only non-Russian participant to bring its own main battle equipment. Many of its participating troops (close to 600) and much of its equipment arrived by rail, the rest through the first deployment of China’s Y-20 strategic transport aircraft transport, setting “several new records in transport and mobilization” in the process, according to the daily. Deputy Chief of Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Northern Theater Command, Maj. Gen. Zhao Kangping, told the troops at Friday’s arrival ceremony, that they “will display China’s responsibility as a major power with top-notch organization and command capability, training level, combat spirit, coordination and logistics support and epidemic prevention and control.”
Indian media took due note of the significance of Indian Army participation in an exercise involving Pakistani and Chinese troops. India had cancelled its participation in such SCO exercises when things were most tense after the China-India border incidents.
