Troops participating in the "Peace Mission 2021," a counter-terrorism military exercise for Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, held their first coordinated training session for live-fire operations in Orenburg, Russia on Tuesday.
The session began at around 11:00 a.m. local time at the Donguz range.
The drill is being held in Orenburg from Sept. 11 to 25. The participants are from eight SCO member states, including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan.
The participating troops consist of around 4,000 military personnel, among which 558 are from China.
As introduced by the director of the joint exercise, the first phase of the joint exercise runs from Sept. 11 to 17, concentrating on the assembly and deployment of participating troops, and the establishment of a joint director department and a counter-terrorism group command post to study the joint counter-terrorism operations on site, as well as the implementation of coordinated training for live-fire operations.