TEHRAN – The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will hold its 2025 joint counterterrorism exercise in Iran, with the country’s intelligence and security agencies taking the lead, officials announced on Friday.

Olarbek Sharshiev, Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), said during a press briefing that the drill—titled “Sahand–Counterterrorism–2025”—is set to take place near the northwestern city of Tabriz on December 4.

Sharshiev noted that formal invitations and detailed schedules will soon be sent to both member and observer states.

The large-scale exercise aims to enhance coordination and readiness among SCO members in response to cross-border terrorist threats, which often affect multiple nations simultaneously.

This marks only the second joint counterterrorism drill conducted under the SCO framework since the organization’s founding in 1996. The first, “Anti-Terrorism Interaction–2024,” was held in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region last year. According to China’s Ministry of Public Security, that exercise featured live operational drills and specialized missions targeting simulated terrorist groups.

Xinhua News Agency reported at the time that the event represented the first fully joint counterterrorism live exercise involving all SCO member states.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance established in 1996 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Initially focused on countering terrorism, extremism, and separatism, the bloc later expanded to include Uzbekistan and was formally renamed the SCO.

The group has since grown into a major multilateral organization often seen as a strategic counterbalance to Western influence in Central Asia. India and Pakistan became full members in 2017, followed by Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.

The SCO’s 25th Summit of Heads of State was held on August 31 in Tianjin, China, attended by leaders from more than 20 countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, as well as representatives from 10 international organizations.

Current full members include China, Russia, India, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

RATS serves as the SCO’s permanent body for coordinating intelligence, counterterrorism, and counterintelligence activities among member states. Its mandate includes combating what the organization calls the “Three Evils” — terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.

The body is also working toward establishing shared enforcement capabilities, including potential SCO-wide police and military cooperation mechanisms.

In recent years, RATS has broadened its focus to address narcoterrorism and drug trafficking, key funding sources for militant and anti-government groups across the region. It also maintains a joint database of individuals and organizations designated as terrorist, separatist, or extremist by member states.