Armypowerinfo

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has arranged several quasi-military exercises employing a mix of paramilitary and military troops since the early 1990s. The "Peace Mission" drill series, which takes place every other year, has been the most important of these SCO exercises. These exercises have occasionally caused significant worldwide attention and even panic. The SCO, which is jointly led by Beijing and Moscow, has emerged as the most significant Eurasian regional security organization, partly as a result of these exercises. Nevertheless, its institutional and defense capacities are inferior to those of NATO. Conventional defense operations are still out of place for the SCO when it comes to counterterrorism, intelligence sharing, and collective law enforcement.

The Chinese administration has shown greater support over the last two years for Russia's long-standing initiatives to improve military cooperation inside the SCO. Prior to that time, Chinese leaders restricted the SCO's more blatantly military operations while keeping the group concentrated on combating terrorism and other transnational threats. Troops and other activities have decreased in the SCO exercises since 2014, including the September 2016 Peace Mission wargames in Kyrgyzstan. Beijing also limited the SCO's relationship with India, avoiding any potential rivals to China's hegemony within the organization even if it meant sacrificing the SCO's combined power.

However, the body has recently advanced India to full SCO membership with Chinese backing and formed a working group of military advisors to examine collective defense concerns and offer suggestions for strengthening members' coordinated actions. The leaders of the SCO governments adopted a 2019–2021 program at the 18th SCO Summit in Qingdao, which aims to increase "pragmatic cooperation" among member states in the fight against terrorism, extremism, and separatism. Some of the measures included in the program include educating young people who may be at risk of dangerous ideologies, thwarting attempts by radicals to radicalize themselves online, and utilizing the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure to combat terrorism both locally and globally.Members also demanded that the SCO take the lead in using political and diplomatic channels to mediate disputes in Afghanistan, Syria, the Middle East, and Korea. Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the Shanghai Spirit of mutual trust, benefit, equality, consultation, and respect in his remarks as the summit's host, but he also joined other SCO leaders in denouncing a number of U.S. economic and security policies.

This year's Peace Mission exercise, Telling, took place from August 22–29 and featured additional missions and participants. Of note, Uzbekistan deployed military observers for the first time since 2010, and India and Pakistan—who were granted full SCO membership last year—made their maiden appearances at the wargames. Approximately 3,000 soldiers participated in this year's Peace Mission, which was held in the Chelyabinsk area of the Ural Mountains. This comprised about 500 pieces of military hardware, 750 PLA officers and service members, and about 1,700 Russian soldiers.

More Chinese-Russian defense cooperation under a SCO framework has been endorsed by Chinese and Russian intellectuals who point to the logic of increased integration and shared security issues, such as terrorism and potential threats from the United States. According to a paper by Dr. Yang Danzhi of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "the SCO needs to further strengthen its structure at this stage of its development." Cooperation between the armed forces and the defense sector is...a crucial metric and sign of the organization's efficient operation.” Russian expert on Eurasia Vladimir Evseev predicted that Sino-Russian projects aimed at fortifying the SCO's military apparatus and shifting the focus from combating terrorism and extremism to a wider range of more conventional common security threats would be implemented during China's upcoming chairmanship of the organization.

However, the SCO pales in comparison to NATO, the leading U.S. collective military alliance. The July 2018 Brussels Summit produced hundreds of ideas to increase defense expenditure, oppose Russia, combat terrorism, eliminate cyber- and hybrid warfare threats, and enhance force mobility, despite the media's constant harping on its members' disputes. Within 30 days of their mobilization, 30 air squadrons, 30 heavy or medium maneuverable battalions, and 30 naval combatants will be ready for deployment thanks to the new NATO Readiness Initiative. These air, sea, and land forces will offer protection and deterrent for either high-intensity conflict or quick military crisis intervention.throughout order to enhance and expedite the mobility of forces and equipment into, through, and out of Europe, a related Enablement Plan for the Supreme Allied Commander Europe's Area of Responsibility intends to improve infrastructure throughout Europe. NATO is going to help in this effort by creating a Joint Support and Enabling Command, expediting border clearances for Allied forces, and supplying additional military transport and communications channels.

The SCO has never actually participated in a military campaign against terrorism or even a peacekeeping mission, in contrast to the Atlantic Alliance. The SCO lacks established military command structures and formations akin to those of NATO, therefore in the event of a real crisis necessitating immediate military action, its members would have to assemble an intervention force, most likely based on a bilateral agreement between China and Russia.

Remarkably—and most likely unintentionally—the defense ministries of China and Russia undermined global attention to Peace Mission 2018 by declaring that the PLA would take part in Russia's biggest military drill in decades next month for the first time. Defense Minister Shoigu said that hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers and about 3,000 PLA personnel, along with about 1,000 pieces of military gear and several dozen rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, will participate in the upcoming Vostok 2018 drill in the Russian Far East.

Given that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are both in Vladivostok for the Eastern Economic Forum, it's likely that the two presidents will visit the adjacent joint drills for a photo op to show off their developing bilateral strategic partnership to their regional rivals in Tokyo, New Delhi, and Washington. More than the multilateral SCO, their expanding military connections have the potential to jeopardize the core security interests of the US and its allies.