Amid Tensions, India And Pakistan To Take Part In SCO’s Counter-Terror Drills

Amid tensions, India and Pakistan will take part in a joint counter-terrorism exercise likely to be held in grasslands of Kazakhstan along with other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Sary Arka region, reports Hindustan Times.

“The SCO member states will hold a joint anti-terrorism exercise ‘Sary-Arka-Antiterror 2019,” the Council of Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of SCO was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

The joint exercise was announced during the 34th meeting of RATS held in Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

India had reportedly picked a 200-soldier contingent from the 5th battalion of the Rajput Regiment and has also dispatched a small Indian Air Force (IAF) regiment for the drills.

However, HT has quoted experts as saying that the diplomatic influence exerted by China and Russia and the SCO charter would probably not allow the two new members to bring their bilateral differences to the SCO table to disrupt the group’s functioning.

Taking part in SCO wargames is also seen as a way to increase close interactions between the armed personnel of India and Pakistan.