The China-Tajikistan joint anti-terrorism military exercise coded "Coordination-2006" kicked off on Sept. 22. Qian Lihua, deputy director general of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense, was interviewed by the reporter from the PLA Daily at the exercise site.

　　Qian revealed that the exercise was laden with focuses of attention: the aviation troops of the PLA Air Force successfully delivered organic unit of troops beyond China's border for the first time, a reinforced special operation company of 150 servicemen from a special operation group of the Xinjiang Military Area Command was dispatched to Tajikistan as an organic unit with all kinds of necessary equipment for counter-terrorism, the PLA helicopter unit did the first ferrying flight abroad and would practice subjects such as airborne landing in unfamiliar air space and areas under complicated and close-to-real-operation conditions, and the Chinese and Tajikistan armed forces realized, for the first time, coordination and joint operation from the commanding posts to the participating troops.

　　Qian also noted that this exercise abroad would test our troops' capabilities of long-range projection and quick response in organic unit, and the capabilities of commanding coordination and joint support with foreign troops for the sake of raising our troops' capability to hold military trainings in difference terrains under various weather conditions abroad, so as to probe into ways and accumulate experience for holding larger scale joint exercises overseas with foreign troops in the future.

　　By Tan Jie

　　(Sep 26, PLA Daily)