military exercises are regularly conducted among members to promote cooperation and coordination against terrorism and other external threats, and to maintain regional peace and stability. there have been a number of sco joint military exercises. the first of these was held in 2003, with the first phase taking place in kazakhstan and the second in china. since then china and russia have teamed up for large-scale war games in 2005 (peace mission 2005), 2007 and 2009, under the auspices of the shanghai cooperation organisation. more than 4,000 soldiers participated at the joint military exercises in 2007 (known as "peace mission 2007") which took place in chelyabinsk russia near the ural mountains, as was agreed upon in april 2006 at a meeting of sco defence ministers. russian defence minister sergei ivanov said that the exercises would be transparent and open to media and the public. following the war games' successful completion, russian officials began speaking of india joining such exercises in the future and the sco taking on a military role. peace mission 2010, conducted 9–25 september at kazakhstan's matybulak training area, saw over 5,000 personnel from china, russia, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan and tajikistan conduct joint planning and operational maneuvers.