DONGUZ TRAINING GROUND /Orenburg Region/, September 23. /TASS/. The chiefs of the General Staffs from the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have agreed to coordinate their work for preventing threats emanating from the territory of Afghanistan, Chief of the Russian General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday.
The meeting of the military delegations of Russia, India, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus was held on the sidelines of the SCO’s Peace Mission 2021 anti-terror drills running at the Donguz practice range in the Orenburg Region in the Urals.
"The participants in the meeting analyzed the situation in Afghanistan and its impact on creating pre-requisites for the growth of security threats in the SCO member states. They agreed to hold systematic consultations among our countries to prevent destabilizing processes from spilling over to the territories of the organization’s member states," Gerasimov said after the meeting.
As the chief of the Russian General Staff said, the SCO member states consider the export of terrorist activity, the worsening humanitarian situation over an influx of Afghan refugees and growing drug trafficking as the main threats emanating from Afghanistan.
The Peace Mission 2021 anti-terror exercise is running on September 20-24. Overall, the drills involve more than 3,400 troops and over 600 items of armament, military and special hardware. Russia is represented in the drills by about 2,000 personnel and over 350 weapon systems.
These maneuvers have been held every two years since the organization’s creation. The first such exercise took place on the territory of Kazakhstan and China in August 2003.
Russia-China-led bloc must be prepared to fight terrorists’ new tactics — Gerasimov
The armed forces of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization need to be prepared to jointly fight terrorists’ new tactics, the chief of the Russian General Staff said on the sidelines of the Peace Mission 2021 anti-terror drills in the Urals.
"In particular, it is necessary to practice fighting unmanned aerial vehicles, providing IT security and preventing terrorist attacks with the use of chemical and biological weapons," Gerasimov stressed.