Thread: SOC military Drill of April 2009

At the same time.

China, Kazakhstan sign $5B loans-for-oil deal

By JOE McDONALD
MORE FROM BUSINESSWEEK

BEIJING

China announced a $5 billion loans-for-oil deal Friday with the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, Beijing's fourth such arrangement in two months to secure foreign energy for its booming economy.

Beijing's $2 trillion in foreign reserves give it unusual leverage to strike deals at a time when the global financial crisis has left other governments scrambling for cash. It has struck deals with Russia, Venezuela and Brazil since mid-February to trade loans or investment for long-term oil supplies.

In the latest deal, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. will lend $5 billion to Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz EP for the joint purchase of MangistauMunaiGaz, which owns oil and gas fields. It was announced during a visit to Beijing by Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

China's official Xinhua News Agency described the deal as "loans for oil," but CNPC gave no details.

China is the world's second-largest oil consumer and its government-owned producers are expanding quickly abroad, investing in developing oil fields in Africa, Central Asia and Latin America.

Such investments usually give Chinese companies a share of production but involve the risk that projects might fail to produce oil. By contrast, China is guaranteed deliveries in the latest agreements.

KazMunaiGaz said this week CNPC was in talks on possibly acquiring 49 percent of MangistauMunaiGaz, which has reserves estimated at 500 million barrels. KazMunaiGaz owns 50 percent plus two shares of the company.

The deal could help Kazakhstan diversify its export routes. It has an oil pipeline to China but most production goes across Russia to Western buyers. China imported 42 million barrels of Kazak oil through the pipeline last year.

Russia agreed in February to supply China with 300,000 barrels of oil per day for 20 years in exchange for $25 billion in loans. Brazil agreed the same week to supply 100 million barrels of crude in exchange for loans of up to $10 billion.

Also in February, Venezuela and China agreed to add $6 billion to an investment fund to finance joint development projects. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said it would be used partly to finance projects to increase oil exports to China from 330,000 to 1 million barrels per day by 2015.

The two countries say they plan to build four tankers and three refineries in China to process Venezuelan crude.

------

This is an SCO war games. The plot features 'al Qaeda' members who had crossed over from Afghanistan.

SCO Holds War Games in Tajikistan

20 Apr [MoscowTimes] FAKHRABAD, Tajikistan — Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan took part in war games on Saturday in the first such exercise since Kyrgyzstan said in February that it would close the last U.S. air base in Central Asia.

About 1,000 soldiers took part in the exercises, 50 kilometers south of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Only Uzbekistan declined to take part, ....

The plot of the war games featured "al-Qaida" members who had crossed over the border from Afghanistan and captured a chemical factory, taking its workers hostage. The soldiers freed the hostages with the help of planes and parachutes. ....

President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that the SCO countries should have a stronger say in international efforts to restore peace in Afghanistan. Analysts have said the closure of the Manas base could be interpreted as Moscow's offer to Washington to review the regional rules of the game.

Originally Posted by xinhui

The operation involves helicopters, military aircraft and armoured vehicles and up to 1,000 military personnel.

1,000 doesn't sound a lot for a major exercise. I suspect a few zero's have been misplaced

Originally Posted by dave lukins

1,000 doesn't sound a lot for a major exercise. I suspect a few zero's have been misplaced

No, 1000 is about right. Remember, these are dog and pony shows.

Originally Posted by dave lukins

1,000 doesn't sound a lot for a major exercise. I suspect a few zero's have been misplaced

My linked source in post #3 also says 1000.

We notice Uzbekistan is the only SCO country that didn't take part in this counter-terrorism excercise. This may be a country to watch. Also see below.

Uzbekistan has a short common border with Afghanistan, at the latter's north west. It has a long common border with Tajikistan.

Tajikistan says catching suspected Uzbek Islamists

Fakhrabad (Tajikistan), April 20, Interfax - Dozens of suspected members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group seeking Islamist coups in Central Asian countries, have been arrested in Tajikistan since 2009 on suspicion of terrorism and coup plotting, a senior security official said.

"I can't name the exact number of the IMU members who have been arrested, but there are dozens of them," Abdullo Nazarov, deputy chairman of Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security, told reporters.

Nazarov said the IMU had split up into three parts - the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Movement of Turkestan, and a group that allegedly joined Al Qaeda. The latter is led by Tohir Yoldashev, an Uzbek citizen who has taken leadership of the IMU as well and had declared a jihad on the Uzbek government, the official said.

"IMU members whom we have arrested claim that Yoldashev is alive," Nazarov said.

The IMU has its headquarters in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and is chiefly active in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan but IMU militants are quite often arrested in neighboring Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

A Tajik military training ground 50 kilometers from the capital Dushanbe was the site of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization anti-terrorism military exercise whose final phase ended on Saturday. ....

I guess the "anti-terror" ex is now a regular event, most of the media is not covering it.


SCO military exercises to be held in 2010 in Kazakhstan - Russia
13:59 | 29/ 04/ 2009

Print version

MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti) - Joint military exercises of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states will be held in 2010 in southern Kazakhstan, Anatoly Serdyukov said Wednesday after a session of the SCO defense ministers.

"Specific anti-terror activities will be practiced at drills in Kazakhstan. All previous and upcoming military exercises involving SCO countries are of a counterterrorism nature," the Russian defense minister said.

The decision to hold the exercises entitled Peace Mission 2010 was made last May in Dushanbe at a similar meeting.

The SCO regional security group comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Russia took over the presidency of the organization last August. Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.