Chinese and Kazakhstani militaries hold 1st joint border patrol in 2011

Frontier defense servicemen of China and Kazakhstan are in joint border patrol. (Photo by Zhu Dehua)

The frontier defense officers and men of the Yili Military Sub-Command under the Xinjiang Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People s Liberation Army (PLA) and their counterparts from Kazakhstan conducted this year s first joint border patrol from February 5 to 9. In the joint patrol, the two sides inspected the situations within their respective defense areas from February 5 to 7, and they carried out cross-border joint patrol on the isolation belt and in the areas well into the territories of both sides from February 8 to 9.

The teams on duty of both sides patrolled the border either by foot and vehicle or on horseback. They worked in close cooperation to examine the key sections and channels, carried out drills on the use of communication means among sentry posts, and performed their respective duties in response to emergencies.

According to Wang Guoyi, commander of the Yili Military Sub-Command, with the increasing mutual trust of both sides, the task of the Sino-Kazakhstani border management and control has shifted from the previous unilateral prevention of armed intrusion and territorial disputes into cooperation on preventing and combating terrorist attacks, smuggling and trafficking among other criminal activities in the border areas.

Wang said that since 2009, the two frontier defense contingents from the Yili Military Sub-Command and Kazakhstan had explored and summarized the joint border management and control mechanism that mainly featured joint exercise, joint reconnaissance, joint patrol, joint deterrence and joint interaction such that the cooperation as well as mutual trust between the frontier defense agencies of China and Kazakhstan had been enhanced.

In an area for special management and control and a section prone to be sneaked around, the servicemen on duty from both sides also conducted a joint-catch exercise.