Russia-China war games boost ties

17/08/2007| IslamWeb

Russian and Chinese troops have staged a series of dramatic war games in Russia's Ural Mountains at the close of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The event marks the culmination of a nine-day exercise dubbed "Peace Mission 2007" that began in the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang.

It brings together some 6,000 military mostly Russian and Chinese personnel, but also includes troops from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The exercise is not the first time Russian and Chinese forces have trained together, but it is the first time the exercises have been held in Russia and they are by far the largest to date.

Officials say future exercises will grow both in scale and frequency.

"Peace Mission 2007" is being seen as a display of strength against the West and comes a day after the meeting of leaders from the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Power block

The bill for the exercises is mostly being footed by Russia, but the symbolism of the event is expected to strike a chord well beyond the region, particularly in Washington.

The SCO was established in 2001 by Moscow and Beijing to foster security and economic ties in central Asia.

But the group is increasingly being seen as an eastern power block aimed at curbing US dominance in world affairs.

At their meeting in the Kyrgyz capital, SCO leaders underlined their opposition to perceived US hegemony.

The concluding communique issued at the end of the summit included what was seen as a thinly-veiled warning to the US to stay out of the 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 statement said.

Attending the summit as an observer was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who lashed out what he called US "interference" in the region.

Losing ground

Al Jazeera's Moscow correspondent, Jonah Hull, says Friday's military exercises will also be closely watched by the United States, albeit from a distance.

He says Washington is keen to improve its own ties in the strategic and energy rich central Asian region, but the presence of Ahmedinejad at Thursday's summit meeting showed the US is clearly losing ground.

Ahmedinejad also had observer status at last year's summit of the SCO in Shanghaim and there is now talk the group may consider inviting Iran to join as a full member at some point in the future.

Aljazeera correspondent says another US concern to come out of the SCO meeting is the increasingly warm relations between Russia and China.

The two former Cold War rivals have developed what they call a strategic partnership, with the curbing of US dominance in world affairs topping their shared interests.

PHOTO CAPTION

Russia's President Putin and other SCO leaders