Navy in new exercise after patrol with Russia
PLA ships in Yellow Sea for fresh drill following sortie that saw Seoul and Tokyo deploy jets
The People’s Liberation Army Navy has been conducting drills in the Yellow Sea that separates China and the Korean peninsula, the country’s defence ministry said yesterday.
The announcement came just days after South Korea and Japan said they had scrambled fighters in response to a joint patrol by Chinese and Russian aircraft.
A navy fleet from the PLA Northern Theatre Command took part in several days of at-sea training, the defence ministry said in the statement.
It said the fleet included a guided-missile destroyer and three frigates with air defence and anti-submarine missiles.
The ministry did not disclose the date or location of the drills but said they involved missile and naval gunfire attacks, air and marine defence exercises, and reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance training to “strengthen the cooperation capabilities” of the vessels.
This followed the joint exercise last Thursday by Chinese and Russian aircraft in the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.
South Korea’s military said two Chinese and four Russian aircraft had entered its air defence identification zone, remaining there for 17 minutes. The warplanes had entered from the north and flew southeast before leaving the air defence zone.
The same day, Japan said it also detected two Chinese and two Russian bombers in a joint flight over the Sea of Japan before they flew to the East China Sea.
The Chinese defence ministry later confirmed that domestic and Russian fighters and a PLA transport plane were also involved in the joint patrol.
Beijing and Moscow began holding annual air and sea drills in Northeast Asia – which they call joint strategic cruises – in 2019.
In 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they started carrying out the exercises twice a year. The two militaries also conducted joint patrols in June.
“Joint air strategic cruises between the Russian and Chinese armies have become a regular feature twice a year,” the defence ministry said of the joint military patrol held last week.
The Russian defence ministry also said that military aircraft from the two countries had not violated foreign airspace during the cruise last week.
Its statement said the aircraft were operating “in strict compliance with international regulations, and had returned to their respective stations at the end of the cruise”.
The PLA’s Northern Theatre Command is usually involved in operations in the Sea of Japan and collaboration with forces from neighbouring Russia.
The Chinese and Russian militaries held one of their biggest joint air and naval exercises in the Sea of Japan – dubbed Northern/ Interaction-2023 – over four days in July.