China, Russia wrap up military games
Thousands of Chinese and Russian troops have wrapped up their first joint military exercises with a mock invasion by paratroopers on China’s east coast.
The eight-day exercises with 7000 Chinese troops and 1800 Russians underscore growing military ties between the former Cold War enemies, motivated by their common unease with US dominance in world affairs.
On Thursday, Chinese and Russian paratroopers simulated the seizure of an airfield as planes dropped combat vehicles by parachute on the Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea, China‘s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Propaganda leaflets fell from the sky in “a psychological tactic to shake the enemy’s will,” according to Xinhua.
“The exercise ended with the defeat of the ‘enemy’,” the agency said.
Russia‘s Interfax news agency also portrayed the operation as a success, saying Russian planes landed 10 combat vehicles and two armoured personnel carriers by parachute in high winds.
Earlier drills included a mock amphibious assault and a sea battle.
Peace Mission 2005
The exercise, dubbed “Peace Mission 2005,” was inaugurated last week in the Russian port of Vladivostok and shifted on Saturday to China.
Ties between the two governments have warmed since the Soviet collapse in the early 1990s.
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“The fact that such large-scale exercises are taking place demonstrates that our military cooperation is at a high level” |
China has become the biggest foreign buyer of Russian arms and looks to Russia as a source of oil and gas for its booming economy.
Beijing and Moscow are also partners in a six-nation regional group allegedly to combat “extremism” in Central Asia.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, who was in China for the exercise, said this week the unprecedented cooperation was based on a “strategic partnership,” Interfax reported.
“The fact that such large-scale exercises are taking place demonstrates that our military cooperation is at a high level,” Ivanov was quoted as saying.
Stabilising fictional country
Chinese state television showed landing craft disgorging troops in a light rain, while bombers and fighter jets attacked imaginary targets.
Soldiers charged through seaside scrub and rappelled from helicopters.
Chinese and Russian officials say the exercises are based on a scenario of a joint mission to stabilise a fictional country.
Commanders from both sides have tried to reassure the region that the exercises are not directed against any other nation.
The games also give Russia a chance to show off high-tech bombers and other equipment that it hopes Beijing will buy.