MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - The first joint military exercise of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be held on Russian territory in 2007, the chief of Russia's General Staff said Friday.
"The first ever joint exercise in the history of these two organizations will be held next summer," Yury Baluyevsky said.
A majority of the CSTO and SCO chiefs of the General Staff endorsed the decision during a meeting in Moscow Thursday.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a post-Soviet military and political bloc that comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The organization has as its central aim the rendering of military assistance to all member states in an emergency.
Emergency situations include preparations for and actual aggression, the plotting and carrying out of international terrorist attacks, and external threats to the security, sovereignty or territorial integrity of one or more CSTO members.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a regional security and economic alliance in Asia comprising Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The organization never held a full-scale military exercise involving all its member states, but Russia and China have already held several military joint exercises within the framework of the SCO, including the 2005 Peace Mission exercise.
The joint maneuvers of the two alliances, named Peaceful Mission Rubezh-2007, will be held in the Russia's Volga-Urals area and will involve ground and air units of all member countries.
Russia and China will be the largest participants in the exercise, as they each intend to contribute a battalion, while other participants will each put up a platoon.
