(Newsweek) Russia, China and a handful of other regional powers will deploy around 3,000 troops and 500 weapons systems for joint counterterror exercises that will take place in Russia’s Ural Mountains in August, Russia’s military announced Monday.
Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), an intergovernmental entity that seeks to foster military and intelligence sharing, will participate in the drills. The organization is composed of Russia, China, India and Pakistan, as well as Central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. […]
For the Chinese, they are strategic partners with Russia and they agree that there is a multipolar world now, but the Chinese have always tried to temper the idea of it being an anti-NATO organization,” Alexander Cooley, an expert on the Eurasia region at Columbia University, told Newsweek.
“It’s not a problem-solving discussion forum because it operates on consensus. So they don’t talk about hard stuff because it’s not a problem-solving forum and China and Russia themselves are not on the same page. It reacts rather than agenda sets,” Cooley added. […]
Read More © Newsweek
