The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation are about to sign a memorandum of understanding, the CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha told during a telebridge linking the Moscow headquarters of RIA-Novosti news agency and the Russian Press Centre in Beijing.

“The MoU between SCTO and SCO due to be signed in the coming weeks will outline areas of cooperation between the two organisations”, - Bordyuzha said. These include not only military cooperation as such, but also all kinds of security issues facing the states in our region that we must tackle together”, - he stressed.

At the same time Nikolai Bordyuzha thinks it would be expedient to conduct a joint military exercise within the SCO-CSTO framework. “This would be an interesting activity. This would not only enable us to carry out tasks of strictly military cooperation during such drills, but also to set up a good interaction between the two organisations operating in the security field in the same region”, the CSTO chief explained.

Speaking of the SCO-sponsored Peace Mission 2007 counterterrorism exercise due to be held in Chelyabinsk region in the first half of August, Bordyuzha noted: “The exercise that is being prepared by all the members of the SCO is a very interesting activity designed not only to carry out tasks of joint activity, but also to deepen contacts among the military at all levels”.

In his words, “the CSTO stands ready to bring its interaction with the SCO to the highest possible level”. More than 5 thousand personnel and 500 pieces of military equipment from the armed forces of Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Uzbekistan will be involved in the Peace Mission 2007 counterterrorism exercise.

Russia is to dispatch 2 thousand strong personnel.

Source: Shanghai Cooperation Organistaion website