Joint drill advances smoothly

Ma said the massive joint drill had unfolded successfully at present.

He said the troops had staged two joint training sessions with cooperation of command personnel and troops of all sides.

"The process of cooperation is also a process of mutual learning and understanding. It has become more smooth and much better," Ma said, "The next step is to switch to live firing and nighttime exercises once the conditions allow."

Kazakhstan's efforts for drills' success lauded

Ma highly appreciated the efforts made by the Kazakh side to ensure the success of the anti-terror exercises.

He said that Kazakhstan, as the host country, had made full preparations and arrangements for the drills in various aspects, including overall planning, force delivery, preparations for the drilling grounds, the designs of military field camps, and logistics support.

Equality, consultation, mutual benefit

When asked whether the drills were "dominated" by China and Russia, Ma said, before the drills started, all the five participating countries had jointly held four rounds of consultation and participated in the overall planning and designs of the drills.

The principles of equality, consultation and mutual benefit were demonstrated and followed both during pre-drill training and the drills, Ma said.

The common desire and consensus of the SCO member countries were reflected in the drills and requirements from each participating country had been taken into account, he said.

He also noted that the succes of the SCO drills relied on the concerted efforts made by each participating member country.

Joint anti-terror drills of the SCO entered the second phase on Monday at the Matybulak range near the largest Kazakh city of Almaty.