BISHKEK. July 29 (Interfax-AVN) - An operations team of the Kyrgyz Defense Ministry and an airborne reconnaissance team of the Immediate Response Forces will take part in the Interaction 2003 anti-terrorist exercise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that will take place in Kazakhstan and China from August 6 to 12, 2003.
"Under the auspices of the exercise, armed forces representatives of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, China, Russia and Tajikistan will practice conduction of a joint anti-terrorist operation in the interests of maintaining military security of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's member nations," the Kyrgyz Defense Ministry's press service told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
The first stage of the exercise will take place in Kazakhstan's Semipalatinsk region. Its goal is to practice joint actions against terrorism. The main mission of the coalition force is to seal off and destroy an international terrorist gang. The exercise will involve aircraft of the Kazakh Armed Forces.
During the second stage of the exercise that is to take place in China's Zingjang Uygur autonomous district bordering on Kazakhstan, anti-terrorist units of the Chinese and Kyrgyz Armed Forces will team up to storm a terrorist camp, the press service said.
The exercise is aimed at implementing provisions of the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism by member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, increasing the organization's influence and role on the international arena, strengthening mutual trust of the organization's member nations in the military sphere, maintaining security and stability in Central Asia, and improving interaction among control bodies and troops of the organization's member nations.
The defense ministers of the organization's member nations are invited to attend Interaction 2003. The war games will involve operations teams from the defense ministries of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, China, Russia, and Tajikistan, special- purpose forces, aviation, artillery, air defense assets, and motorized rifle units of the organization's member nations.