[A-List] Washington Worried: China, Russia, SCO Military Exercises To Expand

["tony black" <tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Rozoff
To: Rick Rozoff
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 8:36 AM
Subject: [stopnato] Washington Worried: China, Russia, SCO Military
Exercises To Expand


http://washingtontimes.com/world/20050831-113412-3370r.htm


Washington Times
September 1, 2005


Military exercises to continue, expand
By David R. Sands


Russia's unprecedented military exercises with China
went so well last month that they may be expanded to
include several Central and South Asian countries,
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

Mr. Ivanov, in a Russian television interview Tuesday,
said Moscow was considering staging larger joint
exercises involving the six-nation Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO), a four-year-old
regional grouping dominated by Moscow and Beijing.

"I think a repeat exercise will be held sooner or
later," Mr. Ivanov said.

"And secondly, I do not rule out that the armed forces
not only of China and Russia but of other members of
the SCO will take part, including perhaps the
countries which are observers with SCO."

SCO members are China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

India, Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran were given observer
status just this year in the grouping, which has
become a prime vehicle for Russia and China to
challenge U.S. influence in the region.

The eight-day Russian-Chinese exercises, dubbed "Peace
Mission 2005," involved about 10,000 troops on
Russia's Pacific coast and China's Shandong peninsula.


They were the first joint exercises of their kind for
the one-time Cold War rivals, and many saw them as a
challenge to U.S. military dominance in Asia.

The United States was not among the countries invited
to observe the exercises, but U.S. intelligence
agencies closely monitored the proceedings, The
Washington Times reported last month.

Mr. Ivanov said in the interview that China was
Moscow's "major strategic partner" and denied the
exercises were aimed at either the United States or
Taiwan.

"I see nothing here that third countries should be
afraid of," he insisted.

SCO was formed in 2001 out of a looser grouping
created in 1996 known as the Shanghai Five. The
earlier group focused at first on resolving border
disputes after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and
the end of the Cold War. After September 11, it became
a component of the war on terror.






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