Chinese officers in Tajikistan SCO military drill return

All the Chinese military officers who took part in the counter-terrorism joint military exercise in Tajikistan conducted by Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states have returned to China.

On Monday afternoon, the last group out of the 369 soldiers and officers in the drill had reached Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The exercise, code-named "Peace Mission 2012," involved more than 2,000 military personnel from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, and was the first of its kind held in Tajikistan.

The drill concluded on Thursday and Chinese officers started their journey back in groups as of Saturday.

Its prupose was to further train the soldeirs to protect the SCO countries from the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and maintain regional peace and stability.