Russia’s Military Chief Holds Meetings With Indian, Chinese Counterparts
Chief of the Russian General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from India and China, the press office of Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday. The talks were held as part of the main stage of the Peace Mission 2021 anti-terror drills of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) running at the Donguz practice range in the Orenburg Region in the Urals, the press office specified.
“In the course of his meeting with Chief of the Joint Staff of China’s Central Military Commission Colonel-General Li Zuocheng, Gerasimov expressed his gratitude for China’s traditional high-level representation in the measures organized by Russia’s Defense Ministry in 2021,” the statement says.
Gerasimov and his Chinese counterpart highly valued bilateral military cooperation and reaffirmed their desire “to engage the accumulated potential maximally efficiently” for further strengthening it, the press office of the Russian Defense Ministry said. Russia’s military chief also praised bilateral military cooperation with India at a meeting with Chief of the Indian Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat, the press office informed.
Peace Mission 2021 counter-terror drills
The SCO’s Peace Mission 2021 anti-terror drills are running at the Donguz training ground in the Orenburg Region in the Urals and involve troops from Russia, India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.
Overall, the drills have brought together more than 3,400 troops and over 600 items of armament, military and special hardware. Russia is represented in the drills by about 2,000 personnel and over 350 weapon systems. The Russian military contingent mostly comprises units of the Central Military District represented by motorized infantry and artillery formations stationed in the Orenburg Region, special-purpose brigades from the Samara Region and also operational-tactical aviation units of the Central Military District and military transport aircraft of Russia’s Aerospace Force.
Peace Mission maneuvers have been held every two years since the organization’s creation in 2001. The first such exercise took place on the territory of Kazakhstan and China in August 2003.
