China and Kazakhstan will start their first joint anti-terrorism exercise on Thursday, aiming to strengthen co-operation between their respective law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Public Security announced yesterday.

The three-day exercise named "Tianshan I" will be conducted in Southeast Kazakhstan's Almaty Province and Yining in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

It is the first joint anti-terrorism exercise between law-enforcement departments of the two neighbouring countries, which are both members of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO), the ministry said.

Other SCO member states will send observers to the event.

Unlike previous SCO anti-terrorism drills in which military forces took the lead, this time law enforcement officers such as armed police and civilian police will be the major participants.

The exercise is to implement the consensus reached at the SCO summit in June in Shanghai, according to the ministry.

The leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed a declaration vowing to intensify the fight against the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

President Hu Jintao said at the summit that the rampant activities of the "three forces" still pose a threat to regional security and stability, and called for better co-operation between law enforcement and security departments to raise SCO members' capability of joint anti-terrorism action.

Li Wei, director of the Centre for Counter-terrorism Studies under the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said the upcoming exercise shows that China has stepped up anti-terrorism co-operation with other countries.

"Co-operation now involves not only military forces, but also law enforcement departments and information agencies," he said, adding that the change is essential to combating escalating terrorism worldwide.

Li said law enforcement department drills are different from military drills, which mainly target well-organized terrorist groups and large terrorist activities.

"They target smaller-sized terrorist groups and crimes related to terrorism, such as money laundering, human trafficking, drug and weapons trade," he said.

China has conducted three anti-terrorism exercises with SCO member states since the organization's founding in 2001, and the fifth one has been scheduled next year between China and Russia.

Source: China Daily