Russia and China hold joint military drills

Russia and China have begun joint military drills amid tensions with western countries and mutual concerns about instability spilling over from Afghanistan after the withdrawal of American forces.

More than 10,000 troops as well as air forces are participating in the five-day Zapad/Interaction 2021 drills in northwestern China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

The region is close to Xinjiang, where China has incarcerated more than a million Uighurs and members of other Muslim groups as part of what it has portrayed as a fight against extremism and terrorism, though several western governments have labelled it a genocide. Xinjiang also has a small mountainous border with Afghanistan.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said the drills with Russia were aimed at “safeguarding international and regional security and stability”. It also described the exercises as a “new height” in a strategic partnership between Beijing and Moscow.

“China and Russia join hands to build peace together,” read a large slogan at the foot of Helanshan mountains, where the drills started yesterday. The Russian defence ministry said the drills were focused on counterterrorism efforts.

China has deployed its J-20 stealth fighter jets and Y-20 large transport planes, two of the country’s most advanced military aircraft, to the drills. Russia has sent Su-30SM fighter aircraft and air defence systems. Long-range multiple rocket launcher systems, surface-to-air missiles, drones and self-propelled howitzers were among the heavy weapons on display at the opening ceremony.

Both countries’ militaries are using each other’s weaponry for the first time in an attempt to maximise mutual understanding on the battlefield, Chinese and Russian media said. Russia and China have conducted joint drills since 2005, but large-scale exercises only began three years ago.

Chinese troops will operate Russia’s T-72B3 tanks, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and Igla-S air defence missiles, while Russian forces have been provided with Chinese assault guns and infantry fighting vehicles.

Russia today also completed joint drills in Tajikistan with the Uzbek and Tajik militaries near the Afghan border. Moscow also said it was sending additional weaponry to beef up its military base in Tajikistan, its largest overseas base.

The operations come as both Beijing and Moscow are at loggerheads with western countries, including over their respective claims to the South China Sea and Crimea. President Putin has refused to rule out a formal Chinese-Russian military alliance. China is Russia’s biggest trade partner.

In September China and Russia will also take part in regional drills involving members of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a regional bloc headed by Beijing and Moscow.

“Co-operation between the two countries in the military-technical field clearly goes beyond the fight against terrorism and can be seen as a response to the growing American military activity near the borders of China and Russia,” Vassily Kashin, a Russian military expert, said.

Other analysts, however, said that there was a limit to the potential for Chinese-Russian military ties. “They try to stay out of each other’s fights and instead find those areas of overlap in mutual interest,” Alexander Gabuev, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, told the RFE/RL website. “China and Russia are very pragmatic.”