Russia and China Rattle Sabers with Joint War Games
Russia and China Rattle Sabers with Joint War Games
Russia and China launched their first joint military exercise yesterday in a show of force calculated to dissuade the US from presuming a dominant role in global security.
Fighter planes, bombers and more than 10,000 troops will take part in the week-long war games in Vladivostok and the Yellow Sea.
While analysts say the exercises are mainly an excuse for Russia to showcase aircraft to its biggest military hardware client, the two countries are keen to erode Washington's image as a world policeman.
Moscow and Beijing's interests converge in central Asia, where both hope to quell Islamic extremism, preserve trade interests and stifle US attempts to dominate the region.
"It's an attempt to remind the US that a different truth exists which can also be enforced by military might," said Ivan Safranchuk of the Center for Defense Information.
The Russians and Chinese have shown signs of forming a loose alliance against America in recent months, but defense officials were at pains to emphasize that the exercise, Peace Mission 2005, was not aimed at any country. "The exercise will be carried out in the framework of the fight against international terrorism and extremism, to respond to new threats and challenges," said Liang Guanglie, chief-of-staff of China's armed forces.
The maneuvers would boost the countries' common interests and "protect peace and stability in our region and the whole world", he added.
Yury Baluyevsky, Russia's chief of general staff, said the mission was "an important event in relations between the two armies and countries".
The war game scenario will see forces from the two countries invade an imaginary state stricken by ethnic conflict in order to wrest control under a UN mandate.
Russian paratroopers will join Chinese troops to land amphibious craft on the Jiaodong peninsula in the Yellow Sea, supported by long-distance bombing runs and cruise missiles. It is thought that China's nuclear submarine fleet and anti-submarine capability will also be tested.
Ruslan Pukhov, a Russian military analyst, said the strategic bombers seemed out of place in a mock anti-terrorist operation, suggesting they were only included as potential purchases for Beijing. "It looks more like a demonstration of aircraft to a potential client than a recreation of peacekeeping operations," he said.
The state arms exporter Rosoboronexport announced yesterday that Russia's arms exports this year would match the £2.8bn sales made in 2004.
Washington recently expressed concern at China's military build-up and the new commander of the US Pacific fleet, Admiral Gary Roughead, said yesterday he was "very interested" in the exercises.
Mr Safranchuk said Moscow and Beijing were seeking to be guarantors of security in the region to protect trade interests and sources of cheap labor. They were also striving to ensure a "share and a voice" in lucrative pipeline deals, he said.
The US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington would not have observers at the exercises but hoped they would not be "something that would be disruptive to the current atmosphere in the region."