By Xie Xibo 

Flag presentation ceremony for the joint exercise

NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia, Oct. 12 (ChinaMil) -- The joint counter-terrorism exercise "Cooperation-2019" of the Chinese People’s Armored Police (PAP) Force and the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya) kicked off in the suburbs of Novosibirsk, Russia on Friday morning.  

At the launching ceremony, Liu Yu, commanding officer of the Chinese team and deputy bureau chief of a unit under the staff department of China’s PAP Force, said that the exercise is a substantial measure taken by the heads of China and Russia to develop the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. It is of great practical significance in enhancing the ability of both troops to fight against terrorism, deepening exchanges and mutual understanding, as well as consolidating traditional friendships, and does not target any third-party country or region.

General-colonel Viktor Strigunov, commander of the Siberian National Guard District, said that this joint counter-terrorism exercise will help improve combat skills, explore new forms and methods of joint operations, and enhance the effectiveness of joint counter-terrorism operations. It will certainly make great contributions to promoting mutual trust between the two troops and expanding their bilateral cooperation in counter-terrorism across the world.  

The joint exercise kicked off on October 11, and will last for 11 days. In line with the thinking of "training in actual combat and confrontation, and relying on the basement", the joint exercise mainly includes basic skill training of joint counter-terrorism combats, tactical collaboration, comprehensive force-on-force drills and theoretical discussion and exchanges.

In the exercise, China and Russia have set up joint command. And each side sent 58 officers and soldiers to participate in the joint command training, mixed grouping training, and centralized grouping training, who are the troops from Falcon Commando under China’s PAP Force and the independent "Yermak" special operations force under Russian National Guard respectively.

It is reported that this is the fifth joint exercise between the Chinese and Russian counterparts following the serial “Cooperation” joint counter-terrorism exercises in 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2017. The Cooperation-2017 was held in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China in December, 2017.