Pakistan, India joint military exercise in August

BEIJING: The SCO joint counter-terrorism military exercise will be staged in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia in August next.

All the SCO member states including Pakistan and India will send their contingents to participate in the exercise, which will facilitate the enhancement of mutual trust, friendship and cooperation among the SCO member states to jointly cope with new threats and challenges, this was announced here by spokesman Chinese Ministry of National Defense, Senior Colonel Wu Qian at a news conference.

“We are confident that under the strategic guidance of the SCO heads of states, the armed forces of all the SCO member states will continue to uphold the Shanghai Spirit and deepen their cooperation and communication in the defense and security area. The SCO defense and security cooperation will for sure embrace a brighter future, “he added.

He further said, “President Xi Jinping has pointed out at the SCO leaders' summit that security is the cornerstone for the sustainable development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

“We need to practice the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and abandon the outdated cold-war mentality and bloc confrontation.”

“We advocate the universal security and oppose the so-called absolute security at the expense of security of other countries. Facts have proved that seeking exclusive and absolute security is no different from an idiot's daydream. Just as a Kazakh proverb says: people who try to blow out the oil lamp of others will have their own beard burned.”

Defense security is an important area of cooperation of the SCO, and the SCO member states have in recent years conducted smooth, effective security cooperation along with increasingly deepening pragmatic cooperation in various areas, making positive contributions to maintaining regional security and stability.”

To a question about China-India bilateral ties, the spokesperson said, China is willing to work together with the India side to earnestly implement the consensus of the leaders of the two countries about the development of bilateral relations, accumulate strategic trust, promote win-win cooperation, effectively manage and control differences, maintain border stability, and ensure the sound development of the relations between the two militaries.