About 2,000 troops from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization members held a
joint field exercise today, starting the second phase of the "Peace Mission
2007" anti-terror drill.
Those troops, from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan, staged a parade at a military base near Russia's Ural Mountains city
of Chelyabinsk.
Commanders from the six countries agreed that since the SCO was forged in
June 2001, it has abided by the "Shanghai Spirit," which embodies mutual trust
and benefit, equality, respect for cultural diversity and a desire for common
development.
The organization has established a new model of defense and security
cooperation under the principles of openness, transparency and non-targeting at
the third party, they noted.
In the first phase of the drill, chiefs of staff of the six military forces
held strategic negotiations and gave orders in Urumqi, capital of northwest
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday.