Xi at summit this week expanding Shanghai Cooperation Organization India and Pakistan will be accepted as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization this week at a summit to be attended by President Xi Jinping in Astana, Kazakhstan. The move will make the SCO one of the biggest regional organizations, covering about half of the world's population. Analysts said that while the increase in members may bring a bigger variety of voices in the organization, any disagreements can be resolved through communication and consultation. The two new countries will go through official procedures to become members during the 17th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, Assistant Foreign Minister Li Huilai said at a news conference on Monday. Xi will make a state visit to Kazakhstan at the invitation of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev from Wednesday to Saturday. He will attend the SCO summit and the opening ceremony of Astana Expo 2017. India and Pakistans' accession to the SCO will increase the organization's global impact and representative nature, Li said, adding that the cooperation potential and scope of the organization will be increased. By accepting the two countries, the SCO will expand its geographical coverage to South Asia. It will account for three-fifths of the area of Eurasia, he added. The SCO launched accession procedures for India and Pakistan in July 2015 at the Ufa summit in Russia. At the SCO's Tashkent summit in Uzbekistan in June 2016, SCO members signed the memorandum on the obligations for India and Pakistan to obtain membership in the SCO. China will have the rotating presidency of the SCO next year. Xi will talk with other leaders at the summit about making the SCO stronger and a bigger contributor to global peace and stability, Li said. During Xi's visit, China and Kazakhstan will sign cooperation documents in such areas as production capacity, investment, finance and trade, Li said. The two presidents will speak on a video conference call on Eurasia cross-border transportation, talking to people such as port workers in East China, he added. Kazakhstan has played a leading role in jointly building the Belt and Road, and with China has agreed on 51 projects of production capacity, with a total investment of $27 billion, Li said. Xing Guangcheng, a senior researcher of Russian and Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the incoming members of the SCO will bring more energy to the organization and increase its influence. "Any expansion in an organization can be a double-edged sword," he said, adding that SCO members may have different interpretations of the organization and different voices may emerge in the future. Wu Hongwei, another Central Asian studies researcher at CASS, said SCO members can cultivate cooperative potential in economics, culture and education, and reach consensus through more dialogue. wide rubber bandsevent wristbands ukflash drive wristbandwristbands onlinesilicone rubber bandscheap custom wristbandsslap wristbands
A J-20 fighter joins a drill in this undated photo. The aircraft is working with other jet types on joint attacks.Yang Jun / Xinhua The People's Liberation Army Air Force has begun training its pilots a new airstrike tactic that involves all of its best fighter jets. An Air Force aviation unit in northwestern China, the first to use the PLA's most advanced fighter jet, the J-20, has recently been performing joint tactical exercises with J-16 and J-10C aircraft, according to the Air Force. In the exercises, the radar-evading J-20s take advantage of their situational awareness and stealth abilities to seize air superiority. Then J-16s and J-10Cs launch long-range precision strikes against land targets. The J-20 has displayed not only overwhelming air combat superiority in the drills, but also a crucial ability to clear the path for and coordinate combat with other types of fighter jets, the Air Force said in a statement. It added that many pilots in the unit are able to fly all of the three top planes. He Xing, a pilot taking part in the drills, was quoted by the statement as saying that the unit's pilots are trained to operate J-20, J-16 and J-10C to familiarize themselves with the aircraft and get to know their strengths and weaknesses. Then we will be able to know how to use the advantages of a certain type of plane to complement other models and how to make the best use of each aircraft, he said. Yang Wei, chief designer of the J-20 at Aviation Industry Corp of China, said in a China Central Television program about the exercises that the J-20 was designed to carry out strike operations to help obtain air combat superiority. The J-20, the first of China's fifth-generation combat aircraft, made its maiden flight in January 2011 and was declassified in November 2016. It started to be commissioned to the Air Force in 2017, becoming the third stealth fighter jet to enter service, after the United States' F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. It has been sent to take part in a series of combat exercises and has practiced beyond-visual-range aerial fighting maneuvers during the drills, according to the Air Force. The jet bears the important responsibility of clearing a path for other aircraft in an air battle, according to Zhang Hao, head of an Air Force flight-testing center that has deployed the jet. The J-16 and J-10C are also among China's latest combat aircraft and were developed by Chinese designers. They were delivered to the Air Force around 2017, according to the Air Force.
