China and Russia have drawn closer in recent years and tout their friendship as having \u2018no limits\u2019
\nBEIJING: China said Friday it was conducting joint military drills with Russia along its southern coast, after a US-led Western defense alliance met in Washington and Japan warned of a growing threat from Beijing\u2019s strong ties with Moscow.
\nChina\u2019s defense ministry said the two militaries had begun the exercises, called Joint Sea-2024, in \u201cearly July\u201d and they would last until the middle of this month.
\nThe drills in the waters and airspace around Zhanjiang, a city in southern Guangdong province, are \u201cto demonstrate the resolve and capabilities of the two sides in jointly addressing maritime security threats and preserving global and regional peace and stability,\u201d the ministry said.
\nIt added that the exercises \u201cwill further deepen China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era.\u201d
\nThey were taking place in accordance with Beijing and Moscow\u2019s annual plan for military engagement, according to the ministry.
\nThe announcement came in the same week that NATO leaders convened in Washington to reaffirm support for Ukraine amid Russia\u2019s invasion.
\nChina and Russia have drawn closer in recent years and tout their friendship as having \u201cno limits,\u201d and both share hostile relations with NATO.
\nNATO leaders said in a declaration on Wednesday that China had \u201cbecome a decisive enabler\u201d of Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, prompting Beijing to warn NATO against \u201cprovoking confrontation.\u201d
\nChina maintains that it is not a party to the Ukraine conflict but has been criticized by Western leaders for giving political and economic support to Russia, including in the trade of goods with both civilian and military uses.
\nChinese forces are also staging drills this week with Belarus, another Russian ally, on NATO\u2019s eastern border.
\nAnd Japan said Friday that joint China-Russia activities near its territory pose a \u201cgrave concern from the perspective of national security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China and Russia have drawn closer in recent years and tout their friendship as having \u2018no limits\u2019 BEIJING: China said Friday it was conducting joint military drills with Russia along its southern coast, after a US-led Western defense alliance met in Washington and Japan warned of a growing threat from Beijing\u2019s strong ties with Moscow. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-417963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n