Mission for peace targets terrorists

Senior members of the Chinese and Russian armed forces Wednesday vowed to jointly fight terrorists and extremists as the nations kicked off a massive joint anti-terror drill.

Mission for peace targets terrorists

Russian soldiers train before a joint military exercise between China and Russia in Taonan, in northeast China's Jilin province, July 21, 2009. [chinadaily.com.cn]Mission for peace targets terrorists

"Terrorist organizations are taking more and more forms, including launching terrorism attacks under the flag of Islam," Chief of General Staff of the Russian armed forces, Nikolai Makarov, told his visiting Chinese counterpart, Chen Bingde, in Khabarovsk, Russia's biggest city in the Far East and the headquarters of its Far East Military Command.

The two generals kicked off the five-day joint anti-terror drill, codenamed Peace Mission - 2009, along with dozens of high-level military leaders from both sides, at strategic talks that marked the start of the exercise.

"The recent events (in Urumqi) show that more and more terrorist, separatist and extremist forces are emerging, and, recently, to that we have to add pirates (in Somalia)," Makarov said.


"I believe the joint task of our two armed forces is to fight such illegal forces," he added.

The riot in Urumqi on July 5 was instigated by terrorist, separatist and extremist forces, the government has said.

The incident claimed the lives of 197 people.

Russia and China are holding the joint exercise to tell the world "the two armed forces have the capability to handle new challenges and protect regional stability and security," Makarov told reporters at a joint press conference after the talks.

Chen said the drill was "a mission for peace which bears far-reaching political significance".

Wang Haiyun, a former Chinese military attache in Russia, said Makarov mentioned Islamic extremists as being one of the main threats to regional security.

"Terrorist, separatist and religious extremist forces are the root of long-term turmoil in the region," Wang said.

Chen took the opportunity Wednesday to repeat China's stance on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"As neighbors of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), China and Russia have similar strategic interests and security concerns on the peninsula issue," Chen said. "Though the DPRK has recently had a nuclear test, we still insist on denuclearization of the peninsula."

The US and Japan are reinforcing their security efforts and speeding up the implementation of a missile defense system following Pyongyang's missile launches, Chen said.

"That has severely darkened the situation in Northeast Asia," he added.

Chen noted that Peace Mission - 2009 was aimed at terrorism, not nations, dismissing speculation that it was in some way related to the peninsula issue.

Wang Fan, director of the institute of international relations at China Foreign Affairs University, said the ramping-up of US and Japanese security initiatives in the region will add to the challenges.

"Dialogue and mutual trust is more important (than military expansion)," he said.

In the coming days, 2,600 soldiers from China and Russia will take part in a series of drills at a military training base in Horqin Grassland in Baicheng, Jilin province.