Peace Mission 2007

[Ryan Ruck]

Looks like Russia and China have some big wargames planned soon! Anti-terror oriented, of course.

China Says Joint Anti-Terror Drill To Improve SCO Security Cooperation

A senior Chinese military official said on Tuesday that the upcoming joint military drill on combating terrorism, separatism and extremism will improve the security cooperation between members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The drill, which is believed to a test of SCO members' capability of conducting strategic consultations, battle planning, transportation and deployment of troops, "demonstrates the determination of SCO members in tackling new challenges and threats in the region," said an official with the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense.

"It is a clear manifestation of high-level mutual trust and understanding among SCO members and showcases a new level of cooperation among the member countries in defense and security," he said.

The exercise, dubbed "Peace Mission 2007", will be carried out in Chelyabinsk in Russia's Ural Mountains region and in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from Aug. 8 to 17.

All six SCO members -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- will take part.

The official said a joint command center will be set up for the drill with commanders from the armed forces of the six countries.

"Commanders of the six countries will cooperate closely to map out action plans and jointly command the troops," said the official, who declined to be named.

On the technical level, the official said unified frequencies will be set to assist communication and common signals will be formulated for coordinated actions.

A total of 1,600 soldiers from China's army and air force -- including airborne and logistic units -- will take part in the drill, according to the ministry. But it is not known how many soldiers from the other five countries will join the drill.

The SCO members held an anti-terror joint military drill in 2003. In 2005, China and Russia conducted a joint military exercise, code-named " Peace Mission 2005".

[MinutemanCO]

This is HUGE. This is exactly the type of preparation and escalation that must happen if the SCO alliance is to mobilize against the West in the future. Couple this with the diplomatic trauma currently being manifested between Russia and Britain and the stage is nearly set for major military aggression. Keep an eye on this.

Also, you can bet dollars to donuts that Iran and Syria are involved at some level.

[Ryan Ruck]

'Rival To NATO' Begins First Military Exercise

Russian and Chinese troops are joining forces this week in the first military exercises by an international organisation that is regarded in some quarters as a potential rival to NATO.

Thousands of soldiers and 500 combat vehicles will take part in "Peace Mission 2007", organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. Russian officials have also proposed an alliance between the SCO and a body representing most of the former Soviet republics.

Scores of Russian and Chinese aircraft begin joint exercises tomorrow before a week of military manoeuvres from Thursday that will include Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. At least 6,500 troops are involved in what is described as an antiterror exercise.

Colonel-General Vladimir Moltenskoi, the deputy commander of Russian ground forces, said: "The exercise will involve practically all SCO members for the first time in its history."

Staff officers from Uzbekistan, the sixth SCO member, will also attend in what is being regarded as a major extension of the organisation's capabilities. The SCO was founded as a nonmilitary alliance in 2001 to combat drugs and weapons smuggling as well as terrorism and separatism in the region. It has since developed a role in regional trade and is increasingly regarded by Moscow and Beijing as a counterweight to US global influence.

The secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) called last week for joint military exercises with the SCO. Nikolai Bordyuzha said that the body representing Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan should work with the SCO to guarantee security across the region. Mr Bordyuzha has already announced a CSTO plan to create a large military force capable of assisting a member state in the event of an attack. A rapid-reaction force is already based in Central Asia and there are plans for a common air defence system covering most of the former Soviet Union.

Leaders of SCO member states will meet in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, next week for their annual summit. Turkmenistan will also attend for the first time, while Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan have observer status.

Igor Ivanov, the head of Russian security, played down concerns in May that the SCO was evolving into a military alliance to counter the expansion of NATO into Asia as part of the War on Terror. But MPs on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee expressed fears last year that the West could be on a collision course in the struggle for energy resources with "an authoritarian bloc opposed to democracy" that was based on an alliance between China and Russia.

A newly assertive Russia, flush with oil and gas revenues, is moving rapidly to increase its military capability amid tensions with the West over missile defence and NATO expansion. Almost £100 billion has been set aside for rearmament over the next eight years.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russian, Chinese Troops Practice For War Games

Russian and Chinese military transport planes dropped more than 200 paratroopers and heavy weapons during a dress rehearsal on Monday for a massive joint military exercise by the two former Cold War rivals, the first on Russia's territory.

A 1,600-member Chinese military contingent backed by aircraft, tanks and other heavy weapons has traveled to the Chelyabinsk region in Russia's Ural Mountains for the war games, to be held on Friday and watched by the leaders of Russia, China and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

The SCO, which also includes four ex-Soviet nations in Central Asia, was created by Moscow and Beijing to address regional security threats, foster economic integration and counter US influence in the strategically placed, energy-rich Central Asia. The manoeuvres will follow an SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday.

China hosted the organisation's first joint manoeuvres in August 2005, which included a mock assault on the beaches of northern China and featured Russia's long-range bombers. The drills sent chills across the region.

Russian military officials said the war games this week will involve about 6,000 troops and promised that such joint manoeuvres will grow in scale in the future. Russian television showed Russian and Chinese troops practicing on Monday as part of preparations for the final stage of the exercise on Friday.

The war games reflect increasingly close ties between Russia and China, which after decades of rivalry have developed what they call a "strategic partnership'' - an alliance based on their shared concerns about US dominance in world affairs.

[Ryan Ruck]

Moved to a more appropriate forum and renamed since the thread now involves more than just China.

[Ryan Ruck]

SCO Leaders Send a Message to U.S.

The leaders of Russia, China and Iran warned the outside world Thursday to let Central Asia look after its own stability and security, in a veiled message to the United States issued on the eve of major war games between Russia and China.

At a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, leaders issued a statement that was an apparent warning to the United States to stay away from the strategically placed, resource-rich region.

"Stability and security in Central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations," the leaders said at the end of the organization's summit in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

Presidents Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao of China and leaders of four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations that are part of the SCO were all also set to attend Friday's military exercises in the Chelyabinsk region.

Some 6,000 Russian and Chinese troops, dozens of aircraft and hundreds of armored vehicles and other heavy weapons will be participating in the games -- the first such joint drills on Russia's territory.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an observer at the summit, blasted U.S. missile defense plans as a threat to the entire region. "These intentions go beyond just one country. They are of concern for much of the continent, Asia and SCO members," he said.


The SCO was created 11 years ago to address religious extremism and border security issues in Central Asia. In recent years, with Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia signing on as observers, the group has increasingly grown into a bloc aimed at defying U.S. interests in the region, which has huge hydrocarbon reserves.

Ahmadinejad is attending the annual summit for the second consecutive year.

In 2005, the SCO called for a timetable to be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from two member countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan evicted U.S. forces later that year, but Kyrgyzstan still hosts a U.S. base, which supports operations in nearby Afghanistan.

Russia also maintains a military base in Kyrgyzstan.

Putin didn't mention the United States in his speech at the summit, but he said "any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally are hopeless." He also called for "strengthening a multipolar international system that would ensure equal security and opportunities for all countries" -- comments echoing Russia's frequent complaints that the United States dominates world affairs.

Moscow has also bristled at Washington's plans to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, saying the system would threaten Russia security. The United States says the missile defenses are necessary to avert the threat of possible attacks by Iran.

Hu also said signaled that security for Central Asia was best left to the nations themselves.

"The SCO nations have a clear understanding of the threats faced by the region and thus must ensure their security themselves," he said.

Moscow and Beijing have developed what they dubbed a "strategic partnership" after the Soviet collapse, cemented by their perceptions that the United States dominates global affairs.

[Ryan Ruck]

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Holds Biggest War Games Ahead of Leaders Summit

From left, Uzbekistan's deputy defense minister, and defense ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Tajikistan pose for family picture during SCO Defense Ministers summit in Beshkek, 27 Jun 2007

Some 6,000 troops from China, Russia and four Central Asian states will hold their biggest-ever joint counterterrorism military exercise. Some analysts suggest the group, known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, is evolving into an anti-West defense alliance and Iran is looking to join. VOA's Heda Bayron, in our Asia News Center in Hong Kong, has more on the security implications.

At least 1,600 Chinese soldiers, 2,000 Russian military personnel and defense forces from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are part of this year's exercises called "Peace Mission 2007" taking place in the Russian Urals and in China's Xinjiang region.

The anti-terrorism exercises are the biggest ever by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization since it was formed in 2001 as a consultation group on border security issues. In the past six years, the SCO has branched out to included economic and defense relations among its members.

Some security and regional analysts suggest the SCO is evolving into more of a defense alliance aimed at countering U.S. global influence and military actions in its neighborhood, namely Afghanistan.

The first anti-Western indication came two years ago when the SCO called on the United States and its NATO allies to set a timetable for withdrawal of forces from Central Asia. The Uzbek government also evicted the U.S. military.

Analysts say Russia appears to be the driving force and is eager to steer the SCO toward a NATO-like defense alliance. This comes at a time when Moscow has deep differences with the Washington over the U.S. plan to deploy missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland.

In another sign of Russian influence, the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization of former Soviet republics are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding later this month to cooperate on security issues.

Russia is also pushing for membership for Iran - the Bush administration's chief nemesis on the world stage.

Iran has observer status in the SCO and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to again push for full membership during the SCO summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on August 16. If Iran becomes the seventh member, it would only strengthen the perception that is SCO is an anti-West grouping.

Despite these moves, the other big power broker in the group, China, may have other ideas. China has invested millions of dollars in trade, oil and gas, and infrastructure projects in Central Asian states in recent years and has an economic priority. Mark Katz, a politics professor at George Mason University in the United States, explains.

"It seems that the Chinese want to do more in the economic realm while the Russians seem to want to see it more as a security organization," he said. "It [Russia] seems to want to see themselves as a leader of it [the SCO] and I don't see the Chinese going along with that. I'm not certain that China is all that enthusiastic to have Iran join. Whereas the Russians seem to be very willing to see their relations with the U.S. deteriorate, the Chinese aren't. They want good relations with the SCO but they want good relations with the U.S. as well."

Security realities in the region may also halt the SCO's anti-U.S. drift.

The Taleban's resurgence in Afghanistan is worrying some SCO members, particularly Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which share porous borders with Afghanistan.

Professor Iwashita Akihiro, an SCO expert at Hokkaido University in Japan, says some SCO members may be rethinking their opposition to U.S. military presence in the region.

"The Afghanistan situation is worsening and neighboring countries within the SCO feel again the strong threat from Islamic fundamentalists. It [SCO] might go forward a step to reconstruct relations with the United States and other Western countries," said Akihiro.

One thing that the SCO members seem to agree on is closer cooperation in the fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism.

China says it continues to face discontent and separatist threats from the Muslim Uighur people in Xinjiang autonomous region, while Russia is fighting separatist Chechen rebels. In 2005, at least 187 people were killed when Uzbek government forces fired at a crowd in Andijon, which the government described was an armed uprising by Islamic extremists.

So for now, these biggest ever anti-terrorism exercises serve all members interests - whether or not the SCO grows into a full-fledged defense alliance.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia, China Host Ahmadinejad at Anti-U.S. Security Summit

Russia and China today host Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a summit of a Central Asian security club designed to counter U.S. influence in the region.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization invited Iran to become an observer in 2005, sparking concern in the U.S., and Ahmadinejad called for closer ties to the group when he attended last year's summit in Shanghai. Kyrgyzstan is hosting the one-day annual meeting in its capital, Bishkek.

China and Russia, which are competing with the West for access to Central Asia's oil and gas reserves, are positioning the SCO as a counterweight to the U.S., said Andrew Kuchins of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Russia and China never tire of reiterating their commitment to a multipolar world and opposition to a unipolar one,'' he said in a telephone interview. "The SCO is a manifestation of that in Eurasia.''

The U.S., whose relations with Russia have deteriorated, accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and sponsoring terrorism. Ahmadinejad has said the Central Asian group can help fend off "outside interference'' in the region.

Chinese and Russian officials say the SCO, set up in 2001 with the stated goal of strengthening regional cooperation and combating terrorism, is focused on maintaining stability in the region. Its six members include the four Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Resurgent Taliban

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose country is battling a resurgent Taliban, is a guest at the summit. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui said Aug. 11 the group wants to cooperate with Afghanistan in fighting drug smuggling and terrorism.

The SCO in 2005 called for a timetable to end the U.S. military presence in Central Asia. Within six months, Uzbekistan ordered out U.S. forces stationed at its Khanabad airbase. The U.S. has a remaining airbase in Kyrgyzstan, which is used to support operations in Afghanistan.

Leaders of the SCO will tomorrow fly to the Urals region of Chelyabinsk to attend large-scale war games involving 6,000 soldiers and 100 aircraft called "Peace Mission 2007.''

It marks the first joint military exercises on Russian soil between Russia and China, once rivals during the Cold War. Two years ago, the two countries staged major war games in China, causing concern in the U.S.

Russian Influence

In another unwelcome development for the Americans, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov also accepted an invitation to attend the summit. His long-ruling predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, who died last year, had kept the energy-rich country isolated and resisted Russian influence.

Russia in May secured a deal to build a new pipeline to import more gas from Turkmenistan, bolstering its dominant hold on supplies to Europe and heading off a competing U.S.-backed plan that would bypass Russian territory.

Ahmadinejad has been pushing for full membership in the Shanghai group. Analysts say this probably won't happen because Russia and China aren't willing to risk a rupture with the U.S. by inviting its arch-enemy into their club.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met Ahmadinejad last year in Shanghai, will not hold talks with the Iranian president in Bishkek.

Admitting Iran, which is under United Nations sanctions over its disputed nuclear program, "would create more trouble than it's worth,'' said Michael Denison, a Central Asia analyst for the U.K.-based security research company Control Risks.

Still, they might promote closer ties, short of actual membership, he said in a telephone interview. At a meeting of SCO foreign ministers July 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said observer countries expressed "disappointment'' at being limited to a "ceremonial presence.''

Along with Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia have observer status in the six-member group.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia-China War Games Send Message To US

'We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis,' said Mr Putin.

Vladimir Putin today ordered the Russian air force to resume the cold war practice of long-range flights by strategic bombers.

"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis," the president told reporters at joint military exercises with China and four central Asian states in the Russian Ural mountains.

Earlier this month, Russian air force generals said bomber crews had flown near a US military base on the Pacific island of Guam, causing US aircraft to be scrambled to track them. The Pentagon said Russian aircraft had not come close enough to US ships for American planes to react.

In a reference to the US, Mr Putin said the halting of long-range bomber flights after the Soviet Union's collapse had affected Russia's security because other nations had continued such missions.

Around 6,000 troops and hundred of armoured vehicles and fighter jets took part in military manoeuvres in the Urals, watched by Mr Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao.

The two men took part in yesterday's regional summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation along with the leaders of a clutch of former Soviet central Asian republics.

The meeting concluded with a thinly veiled warning to the US to keep away from the energy-rich and strategic region.

A statement said: "Stability and security in central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations."

Without mentioning the US directly, Mr Putin called for a "multi-polar" world order. "Any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally are hopeless," he said.

The SCO, founded 11 years ago, focuses on border security and combating extremism in central Asia.

As well as its full members, Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia have signed up as observers in recent years.

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took advantage of the platform to call US missile defence plans that could include stationing missile interceptors in Europe a threat to central Asia.

"These intentions go beyond just one country," he said. "They are of concern for much of the continent, Asia and SCO members."

Moscow and Beijing have developed what they describe as a "strategic partnership" in the region.

Washington supports plans for pipelines that would carry the region's oil and gas to the west and bypass Russia, while Moscow has pushed strongly to control the export flows. China is eyeing the region to secure energy for its booming economy.

This week, the China National Petroleum Corporation announced that Turkmenistan, which is not a member of the SOC, would aim to supply China with 30bn cubic metres of gas annually over 30 years.

In 2005, the SCO called for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from two member countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The US left Uzbekistan later that year, but Kyrgyzstan still has a US base, which supports operations in nearby Afghanistan. Russia also has a military base Kyrgyzstan.

In another move with cold war overtones, Russia took the BBC's Russian-language FM broadcasts off the air.

The Moscow distributor of the broadcasts said the programmes were "foreign propaganda."

The decision by Bolshoye Radio - and similar moves by two other radio station in the past year - leaves the BBC's Russian-language services available only on medium and shortwave broadcasts, the corporation said in a press release.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia And China In Joint 'War Games'

Servicemen march during a parade at Chebarkul during the Peace Mission 2007 counter-terrorism exercise of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states.

Russia and China staged their biggest joint exercises on Friday but denied this show of military prowess could lead to the formation of a counterweight to Nato.

The war games were staged under the flag of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional grouping that includes Russia, China and four Central Asian states.

Russian president Vladimir Putin, who watched the war games with Chinese president Hu Jintao, dismissed comparisons with the western North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).

"Today's exercises are another step towards strengthening the relations between our countries, a step towards strengthening international peace and security, and first and foremost, the security of our peoples," Mr Putin said.

Fighter jets swooped overhead, commandos jumped from helicopters on to rooftops and the boom of artillery shells shook the firing range in Russia's Ural mountains as two of the largest armies in the world were put through their paces.

The exercises take place against a backdrop of mounting rivalry between the West, and Russia and China for influence over Central Asia, a strategic region that has huge oil, gas and mineral resources.

Russia's growing assertiveness is also causing jitters in the West. Putin announced at the firing range that Russia was resuming Soviet-era sorties by its strategic bomber aircraft near NATO airspace.

Commanders said the aim of the exercises - involving 7,500 troops from SCO member states -was to practise joint operations for putting down a militant uprising.

Moscow has been fighting a separatist insurgency in its southern Chechnya region while China says it is fighting Uighur Muslim rebels in its westerly province.

"I am convinced that the current exercise will definitely serve to stimulate the SCO to play a bigger role in the struggle against terrorism in the region," Mr Hu said.

Asked by a reporter if the SCO was turning into a counter-balance to Nato, Mr Putin said: "That is not the case."

"The military aspect is not dominant and not the main thing ... The SCO is an organisation that deals with questions of a political character and an economic character ... and the economic aspects are at the forefront," he said.

Building the alliance may be hindered by the ambiguous relations between Russia and China.

Moscow wants to supply energy to China's booming economy and sell its weapons to its military, but is also wary of Beijing's growing economic and military might.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia And China Hold Joint Military Exercise

Chinese armored vehicles rumbling across a field at Chebarkul testing range on Friday as Russian and Chinese forces held their first joint maneuvers on Russia's territory.

President Vladimir Putin said Friday he had ordered strategic bombers to resume regular long-range patrols as Russian and Chinese forces held their first joint military exercise on Russian soil — a show of armed muscle aimed at sending a pointed message to the United States.

The resumption of bombing patrols, which analysts say signaled a significant change for Russian military policy, comes amid a growing chill in U.S.-Russian relations, strained over Washington's criticism of Russia's democracy record, Moscow's objections to U.S. missile defense plans and differences over global crises.

Both Moscow and Beijing share a heightening distrust of what they see as the United States' oversized role and influence in global politics, and the two former Cold War rivals have forged a "strategic partnership" aimed at counterbalancing Washington's policies.

The Russian-Chinese war games, which took place near the Urals Mountain city of Chelyabinsk, coincided with Russian air force maneuvers involving 20 strategic bombers which ranged far over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans.

One of those drills, involving 11 Russian aircraft, prompted NATO member Norway to scramble F-16 fighter jets to observe and photograph the Russian planes as they flew over the Norwegian Sea.

The group of strategic bombers, early warning aircraft, fighter jets and refueling planes represented the biggest show of Russian air power in that region since the early 1990s, said Brig. Gen. Ole Asak, chief of the Norwegian Joint Air Operations Center.

"We haven't seen that kind of activity in a very long time," Asak told The Associated Press. "Not since the early 1990s. It was quite impressive to see."

In announcing the policy change, Putin said halting long-range bombers' flights after the Soviet collapse had affected Russia's security as other nations had continued such missions — an oblique reference to the United States.

"I have made a decision to resume regular flights of Russian strategic aviation," Putin said in televised remarks. "We proceed from the assumption that our partners will view the resumption of flights of Russia's strategic aviation with understanding."

"Starting today, such tours of duty would be conducted regularly and on the strategic scale," Putin said. "Our pilots have been grounded for too long, they are happy to start a new life."

Soviet bombers routinely flew such missions to areas from which nuclear-tipped cruise missiles could be launched at the United States, but stopped in the post-Soviet economic meltdown. Booming oil prices have allowed Russia to sharply increase its military spending.

"This is a significant change of posture of Russian strategic forces," Alexander Pikayev, a senior military analyst with the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations, told The Associated Press. "It's a response to the relocation of NATO forces closer to Russia's western border."

NATO in recent years has expanded to include the former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as well as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack sounded neutral.

"We certainly are not in the kind of posture we were with what used to be the Soviet Union. It's a different era," he told reporters. "If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision."

The war games involved some 6,000 troops from Russia and China along with soldiers from four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations that are part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional group dominated by Moscow and Beijing.

Putin, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and other leaders of the SCO nations attended the exercise, which followed their summit Thursday in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek.

The summit concluded with a communique that sounded like a thinly veiled warning to the United States to stay away from the strategically placed, resource-rich region: "Stability and security in Central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations."

Putin hailed the exercise — which involved dozens of aircraft and hundreds of armored vehicles countering a mock attack by terrorists and insurgents striving to take control of energy resources — "as another step to strengthen relations between our countries." Hu said the maneuvers "underlined the SCO's readiness to confront terror."

The United States, Russia and China are locked in tense rivalry for influence in Central Asia, where vast hydrocarbon riches are buried. Washington supports plans for pipelines that would carry oil and gas to the West and bypass Russia, while Moscow has maneuvered to control exports. China also has shown a growing appetite for energy to power its booming economy.

Friday's exercises underlined that "the SCO wants to show that Central Asia is its exclusive sphere of responsibility," said Ivan Safranchuk, an analyst at World Security Institute

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, meanwhile, said the exercise was not aimed against the United States. "I don't see anything anti-American in the SCO exercise," he was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

The SCO was created 11 years ago to address religious extremism and border security issues in Central Asia. In recent years, the group has grown into a bloc aimed at defying U.S. interests in the region.

In 2005, the SCO called for a timetable to be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from two member countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan evicted U.S. forces later that year, but Kyrgyzstan still has a U.S. base, which supports operations in nearby Afghanistan. Russia also maintains a military base in Kyrgyzstan.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country has SCO observer status, attended the summit for the second consecutive year. On Thursday, Ahmadinejad echoed Russia's criticism of U.S. plans to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, saying they were a threat to the entire region.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia's President Praises Strength Of Central Asian Alliance

President Putin of Russia and his Chinese counterpart, President Hu, will attend an unprecedented show of joint military force Friday amid fears that the Russian leader is trying to turn an increasingly powerful central Asian alliance into a second Warsaw Pact.

The American government will be watching the military maneuvers anxiously from afar after its request to send observers was rejected. The maneuvers will be held under the auspices of the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Founded in 2001, the SCO, which includes the four central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as well as China and Russia, is rapidly gaining a reputation as an anti-Western organization.

That image seems to be one that Mr. Putin is happy to cultivate. Analysts say the Russian president believes the organization is emerging as a bloc that is rapidly becoming powerful enough to stand up to the West.

Russia's most pro-government newspapers, often used by the Kremlin as propaganda vehicles, proclaimed the arrival of an "anti-NATO" alliance and a " Warsaw Pact 2." At the annual SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek yesterday, Mr. Putin praised the alliance's growing strength. "Year after year, the SCO becomes a more significant factor in strengthening security and stability in the central Asian region," he said.

In a thinly disguised swipe at Washington, which mirrored earlier attacks on American "unilateralism" and "diktat," he added: "We are convinced that any attempts to resolve global and regional problems alone are useless."

For the most part, the summit's agenda concentrated on promoting energy cooperation in central Asia, whose vast resources have elevated the region's geopolitical importance.

The West has been desperate to strengthen its presence in the area but has begun to fall behind both Russia and China in a race for influence that has been compared to the 19th-century Great Game, when Britain and Russia competed for control of the region.

Yet the SCO has wider ambitions. Pakistan, India, and Mongolia all want to join Â-- as does Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, attended the summit as guest of honor, a title bound to rile Washington. Iranian membership of the SCO would pose an enormous headache for the American government. Like NATO, its treaty states that an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all, raising the prospect that the American government could find itself aligned against both Russia and China if it invaded Iran.

[Ryan Ruck]

Iran And The Shanghai Pact

Iran's Ahmadinejad condemns U.S. missile defense plans in Europe at a meeting of a group seen as the anti-NATO. Then the group's founders hold a joint military exercise. Is another evil empire in the offing?

Iran's madman-in-chief condemned our proposed anti-missile radar and interceptor sites in Poland and the Czech Republic at a meeting Thursday of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at Bishkek in the former Soviet province of Kyrgyzstan. Iran has observer status in the group composed of Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian countries.

Echoing a charge by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. seeks global dominance, Ahmadinejad called the sites a threat to the region. "These intentions," he said, "go beyond just one country. They are a concern for much of the continent, Asia and SCO members." We hope so.

The SCO was created 11 years ago ostensibly to address the threat of Islamic terror and extremism in Muslim Central Asia, which includes parts of the former Soviet Union and China. But it has evolved into an alliance aimed at thwarting U.S. interests in the region and threatens to become a descendant of the old Warsaw Pact.

Iran's involvement in the group is interesting and ominous. Ahmadinejad, like his Russian and Chinese counterparts, opposes U.S. efforts at missile defense, largely because it would thwart the fruits of Iran's missile and nuclear programs. Indeed, the defense sites in Europe are designed to deal with the Iranian threat.

The U.S. established bases in SCO members Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the days after 9/11. In 2005, the SCO called for a timetable for the withdrawal of any American military presence in member states. Uzbekistan evicted U.S. forces later that year.

On Aug. 17, some 6,000 troops from Russia and China, with a handful from the other SCO members, conducted their first ever joint military exercises on Russian soil. The war games coincided with a massive Russian Air Force exercise in which dozens of Russian strategic bombers were dispatched over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans. What that had to do with fighting terrorists escapes us.

Putin, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and other leaders of the SCO nations attended the exercise, which followed the Thursday summit. A statement issued by the group advised: "Stability and security in Central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations." In other words: Keep off the grass.

The possibility exists that Iran may soon seek and be granted full membership in the group, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards participating alongside Russian and Chinese soldiers in future war games.

This is all the more reason why the United States should proceed at full speed with deploying missile interceptors and tracking radars in Poland and the Czech Republic. Congress should also fully fund the airborne laser program (ABL). The administration asked for $549 million for ABL in the 2008 budget. The request was cut by $200 million in the Senate and by $250 million in the House.

The program uses a modified 747 carrying high-energy lasers designed to destroy missiles like the Iranian Shahab series in their vulnerable boost phase. They can be dispatched where and when needed and, unlike land-based interceptors, can be used repeatedly.

On July 9, the ABL was tested successfully, with a modified Air Force 747-F actively locating and tracking a target through atmospheric distortion and hitting it with its lasers A few of those patrolling the skies over Iraq and the Persian Gulf would send Tehran and its friends in the SCO a message they need to hear.

[American Patriot]

Bill Benett mentioned the join Soviet... er Russian and Chinese war games.

I predicted that a LONG time ago.. I also thought that I was wrong and later changed my mind saying that there were too many differences in Russia and China.

So... now, we are seeing my predictions coming true. That's very bad.

[Ryan Ruck]

Yep, this is their second MAJOR war game together. The last one was Peace Mission 2005 and that was held in China. They've had countless other smaller training sessions together.

Here are some pictures from PM07:


Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, have attended a joint military exercise in the Ural Mountains in Russia.


The exercise involved 6,000 troops from Russia and China.


They were joined by troops from the other four nations of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.


It is the first time that such manoeuvres have taken place on Russian territory.


Troops used a joint air and land assault to attack a mock town.


In the exercise scenario, the town was being held by terrorists.

(By terrorists, do they mean Wolverines?)


Fighter jets joined in with the assault.


Correspondents say the exercises highlight the growing strategic importance of energy-rich Central Asia, which faces a host of security threats.

[vector7]

SCO combined maneuvers - Мирная миссия 2007 0007 2

SCO combined maneuvers - The Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Совместные учения стран ШОС "Мирная миссия 2007"

[vector7]

And from 2005...

China and Russia joint military exercises in 2005

Peace Mission 2005 joint military exercise. Watch: http://www.sectsco.org/ 上海合作组织 Шанхайская Организация Сотрудничества Shanghai Cooperation Organization -- SCO