Shaheen VI Exercises End

Shaheen VI Exercises End

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What is the message from  Shaheen VI Exercises for India 

The sixth iteration of the Shaheen exercises, which were conducted by the Chinese Air Force (the PLAAF), and its Pakistani counterpart, the PAF, at the Korla air base in China’s Xinjiang Province, ran from 5-25 September.
The PAF fielded its Chinese-designed JF-17 fighters, along with the F-7PG fighter aircraft, which is the export version of China’s Chengdu J-7 that is, in turn, the Chinese version of the Soviet MiG-21, and its ZDK-03 AWACS aircraft, which is the Pakistan-specific export version of the Shaanxi Y8 transport aircraft platform that is, again, based on the Soviet Antonov An-12 platform.
The PLAAF fielded J-8 and J-11 fighters, JH-7 fighter-bombers, KJ-200 AWACS, surface-to-air missile personnel, air defence controllers, ground crews and, according to one report, Chinese Navy aviation troops. The composition of platforms, systems and personnel indicates the growing sophistication and scope of the annual exercise.

It would appear that the two all-weather friends are addressing yet another commonality: India’s posture vis-à-vis the two countries, which was demonstrated by the strike against militants on Pakistani territory and during the Doklam face-off.

As was to be expected, the exercise ended with the now-mandatory words of praise by each side to the other. The leader of a Chinese pilot team, for instance, remarked that the Chinese and Pakistani pilots had become “buddies” after ten days of exercising together.
That is probably true, given that during the ten days, Chinese and Pakistani pilots sought to demonstrate their mutual confidence in each other by flying together in the same fighter aircraft at times.
Colonel Wu Qian stated at a media briefing that, ‘Speaking of Pakistan, the first word that comes to my mind is “Iron Pak”. … If we characterise Pakistan-China military-to-military relations,’ the three key [terms] are ‘all-weather brotherhood, high-level mutual assistance and support, and deep-rooted strategic mutual trust.’
Taken together, it would appear that the two all-weather friends are addressing yet another commonality: India’s posture vis-à-vis the two countries, which was demonstrated by the strike against militants on Pakistani territory and during the Doklam face-off.
From that perspective, this iteration of the Shaheen exercise assumes added significance. If either China or Pakistan decides to provoke India into taking military action against one of them, in all likelihood after the nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which begins on 18 October, it is quite possible that the two-front war that General Rawat says his troops are ready to prosecute would become a reality.

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