China - joint exercises

China's joint military drills with Russia this week, observed by other SCO states representatives, has caused comment around the world. Is the SCO a nascent military bloc or is this just a Russian arms bazaar ?. The presence of delegations from four of the five Central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - does make it look like the Shangai group is trying to make a point about power in the Central Asian region but Russia is also the main high tech arms supplier to China (given the EU's cold feet) and some see this as the main point of the exercise more from the Asia Times...