Russia For More Military Drills With Asian Allies To Counter US

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu called for more joint military exercises with Asian allies to counter US efforts to extend its security influence in the region. Shoigu was speaking at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a security alliance that comprises Russia, India, China, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

“I believe that everyone present shares the opinion that the deployment of military infrastructure in the region by the United States and its allies is unacceptable,” Shoigu said.

“Such intentions must be regarded as a direct threat to stability in the SCO space.”

SCO member states should expand the scope and geography of their military exercises, he told the meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana.

His speech highlighted Russia’s intention to strengthen military ties with partners in Asia and resist any erosion of its influence there despite the intense demands on its army of the war it has been fighting for more than two years in Ukraine.

At home, Shoigu’s position is under greater-than-usual scrutiny after the arrest of one of his deputies this week in a bribery scandal, a development that threatens to weaken him politically.

In his speech, he accused the US-led QUAD and AUKUS blocs of trying to reshape the security structure in the Pacific to suit themselves, and said that increasing pressure was being exerted on China over Taiwan.

Shoigu said the main threat in Central Asia came from “radical terrorist groups located in Afghanistan”. He said the United States was working to restore influence in the region that it lost after the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan in 2021.

Islamic State militants took responsibility for the deaths of over 140 people at a concert hall near Moscow last month, with the United States attributing the planning of the attack to the group’s Afghan network. However, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reiterated Russia’s claim that Ukraine orchestrated the attack, a charge Ukraine denies and the United States dismisses as baseless. Additionally, Shoigu accused foreign advisers in Ukraine of assisting in planning sabotage operations on Russian soil and claimed that Ukraine was utilising Western-supplied weapons to target Russian civilian infrastructure, though he did not offer proof for these allegations.

With Inputs From Reuters