Sino-Russian military exercise

Joint-military exercises have become quite a common feature in several parts of the world, but the recent Russo-China exercise in Russia acquires importance as it is considered to be a strategic maneuver. Russian and Chinese military forces started joint war-games on 17 August 2007, using a joint land and air assault on a mock town held by "terrorists" as a showcase for their military prowess. Fighter jets swooped overhead, commandos jumped from helicopters onto rooftops and the boom of artillery shells shook the firing range in central Russia as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao looked on smiling. The presidents, who control two of the largest armies in the world, were joined by leaders and military forces from the four other Central Asian members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security and economic grouping. General Vladimir Moltenskoi, the Russian commander in charge of the exercise, said the war games involving 7,500 troops from the SCO members would help the grouping fight "international" and "internal terrorists." The "exercise" area is close to Chelyabinsk, nicknamed "Tankograd" after Josef Stalin moved tank and other arms production there during World War-II to escape the invading Nazis. Russia has waged two wars against Muslim Chechen freedom fighters since 1994, China says it has been combating Uighur Muslim rebels in its most westerly province.
Putin considers the exercises as another step towards strengthening the relations between the countries, a step towards strengthening international peace and security, and first and foremost, the security of Asia-Pacific. Hu also praised the exercises and said: "I am convinced that the current exercise will definitely serve to stimulate the SCO to play a bigger role in the struggle against terrorism in the region." The SCO on 16 August sent NATO a thinly coded warning at its summit, saying the world must let the region resolve its own security. The West has been jockeying with regional powers Russia and China for influence over the energy-rich area.
Russia said that the aim of the operation is freeing of the territory controlled by the terrorists and the destruction of the illegal group of terrorists if they fail to surrender. One fact is glaringly revealed in this joint-exercise by these UNSC-5 members: Russia is fully awakened to reassert it superpower status and once again sends cold warning to US-led NATO about its missile placement in East Europe. Since the collective security system by the CIS nations led by Russia is a weak agency to counter NATO effectively, Russia has decided to use SCO.
President Putin has been critical of aggressive external polices of the US. And the latest global patrolling by Russian fighters over Atlantic and Pacific oceans throws enough light on an emerging confrontational scenario.