First anti-terror drills: China said Tuesday it will send troops to Pakistan later this month for the countries first joint counterterrorism military exercise in five years to enhance security cooperation with its South Asian neighbor and close ally.

The announcement follows reports that Beijing is pushing Islamabad to permit its security personnel to safeguard thousands of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan from deadly terrorist attacks. It also comes amid a spike in terrorist attacks against Pakistani security forces attributed to or claimed by the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as TTP.

On Tuesday, China’s Defense Ministry said that the Pakistan-hosted “Warrior-VIII exercise is set to begin in late November and will run until mid-December “with the aim … to enhance the capability for conducting joint counterterrorism operations,” according to Chinese state media.

The ministry said the exercise will involve troops from the Western Theater Command of China’s People's Liberation Army.

“The two sides will engage in multi-level and mixed training across various specialties and organize live troop drills in accordance with the actual combat process,” according to the state media report.

China and Pakistan last conducted joint counterterrorism military drills in 2019.

String of attacks

Last month, a suicide car bombing just outside the airport in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi killed two Chinese engineers. The victims were returning to work after a holiday in Thailand on a project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a multibillion-dollar extension of President Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative.

In March, a suicide car bomb attack in northern Pakistan killed five Chinese workers and their local driver.

The repeated targeting of its nationals reportedly angered China, prompting it to urge Pakistan to negotiate a joint security management system to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in the country.

The Pakistani government has dismissed the alleged Chinese diplomatic pressure, however, as “media speculation” and an attempt “to create confusion” regarding Islamabad’s relationship with Beijing.

“Pakistan and China have a robust dialogue and cooperation on a range of issues, including counterterrorism and security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch told reporters last Thursday at her weekly news conference.

“We will continue to work with our Chinese brothers for the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects, and institutions in Pakistan,” she stated.

Shaking ties

Baloch added that attempts to undermine the mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries will not succeed, nor will the two countries “allow any efforts or stories to derail the Pakistan-China strategic partnership.”

Speaking at a seminar in Islamabad just days after the Karachi car bomb attack, Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong publicly questioned the host government’s safety measures to deter threats to Chinese nationals.

"It is unacceptable for us to be attacked twice in only six months,” Jiang stated. He urged Islamabad to take “effective remedial measures to prevent the recurrence of such terror acts and ensure that perpetrators are identified, caught, and punished.”

Pakistan dismissed the Chinese envoy’s remarks as “perplexing” and contrary to established diplomatic traditions between the neighbors.

The Pakistani response was unprecedented, and Jiang’s public admonishment of Islamabad highlighted the strains arising from attacks on Chinese nationals that have resulted in the loss of at least 21 lives over the past five years.

'Afghan terror sanctuaries'

The joint drills between Pakistani and Chinese troops come amid a dramatic surge in deadly militant attacks on security forces and civilians in Pakistan, which authorities say are being orchestrated from “TTP sanctuaries” in neighboring Afghanistan. The country’s Islamist Taliban leaders reject the allegations.

Yue Xiaoyong, China’s special envoy for Afghan affairs, visited Islamabad this week, where Pakistani officials reportedly shared with him evidence regarding TTP’s presence in Afghanistan and the threat it poses to regional stability.

Neither Islamabad nor Beijing has commented on the media reports. A brief post-meeting Pakistani statement said the discussion centered on the Afghan situation, with both sides reaffirming "the vital role of neighboring countries for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan." VOA/SP