Russia and China start war games
Russia kicked off the biggest war games in its history yesterday, mobilising 300,000 troops joined by more than 3000 Chinese soldiers in a show of military might intended to counter what it called the ‘‘aggressive and unfriendly’’ attitudes towards it.
The ministry of defence said that almost a third of its active military personnel was taking part in the week-long exercises in Siberia and the Russian far east, although independent analysts suggested that the numbers may have been overstated.
About 36,000 Russian tanks and armoured vehicles, 1000 warplanes, helicopters and drones, and 80 warships will be joined by 900 Chinese combat vehicles and 30 aircraft, underscoring a growing partnership between Beijing and Moscow to challenge American global hegemony. A Mongolian unit will also be involved, although the size and composition of the country’s contribution was not disclosed. Russia was Mongolia’s main ally until the rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing began in the early 1990s.
President Vladimir Putin was expected to attend the exercises, named Vostok 2018, after meeting President Xi of China in Vladivostok yesterday. He praised the strong relationship between the two nations, hailing their ‘‘trustworthy ties in political, security and defence spheres’’. Xi said that the friendship was ‘‘getting stronger all the time’’.
The two men signalled that their co-operation would go far beyond the military sphere, saying that they planned to use their own national currencies in trade deals instead of the US dollar, thereby challenging its supremacy as the global reserve currency.
Asked if the cost of the exercises was justified at a time when Russia was facing higher social spending demands, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said: ‘‘The country’s ability to defend itself in the current international situation, which is often aggressive and unfriendly towards our country, means it is justified.’’
Dylan White, a Nato spokesman, said: ‘‘Vostok demonstrates Russia’s focus on exercising large-scale conflict. It fits into a pattern we have seen over some time: a more assertive Russia significantly increasing its defence budget and its military presence.’’
The exercises come amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West over increased sanctions, the conflict in Syria, the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings and the indictment of Russian intelligence agents for hacking and interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Separately, China and the US are at loggerheads over an escalating trade war, and the Trump administration is considering its first sanctions on Chinese officials in response to human rights abuses.
The sanctions are mandated by the Magnitsky Act, a frequent target of Kremlin ire. –