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09-07-2026
BEIJING/ MOSCOW: The Chinese and Russian navies will hold joint exercises in the waters and airspace off China’s eastern coast soon.
In a statement on Sunday, the Chinese Ministry of Defence said the annual drills off the major port of Qingdao would be followed by joint maritime patrols in unspecified areas of the Pacific Ocean.
Separately, Russian state media reported that a cruiser, a corvette, a diesel-electric submarine and a rescue vessel from Russia’s Pacific Fleet had arrived in Qingdao for the drills that are set to run from Monday to July 13.
China’s Northern Theatre Command said its participating forces include two destroyers, a frigate, a submarine, a supply ship and a rescue vessel.
The two navies are expected to conduct reconnaissance, air and missile defence, and surface-strike exercises.
The manoeuvres come roughly two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to China, during which he described bilateral relations as having reached an “unprecedentedly high level”.
For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping called the two countries’ partnership “unyielding”.
The two major diplomatic and economic partners have held Joint Sea exercises since 2012. Last year’s edition took place near the Russian port of Vladivostok and was also followed by joint patrols in the Pacific.
China has never denounced Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine. It insists it is a neutral party and has been regularly calling for peace talks.
In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China for a two-day visit centred on talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as Moscow and Beijing draw closer amid war, sanctions and an increasingly fractured global order.
Putin’s visit is the second face-to-face meeting he has held with Xi in less than a year and coincides with the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, the agreement that formalized ties between Russia and China following decades of ideological rivalry and mutual suspicion.
The visit comes just days after United States President Donald Trump left Beijing following his own two-day visit to the Chinese capital for meetings with Xi.
Both Moscow and Beijing are navigating tricky relations with Washington, with analysts saying the unpredictability of Trump’s foreign policy has had the effect of pushing Russia and China even closer together.
Their deepening partnership also comes against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, mounting tensions around Iran, and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a crisis that has rattled global energy markets and renewed Beijing’s concerns over the security of its oil and gas supplies.
With one of the world’s most strategically vital waterways under threat, China has increasingly turned towards Russia as a reliable overland energy supplier.
Analysts say Xi’s decision to host Trump and Putin within the space of a week is no coincidence, reflecting Beijing’s attempt to cast itself as a trusted actor in an increasingly fragmented and volatile world order.
China and Russia have long occupied a complicated place in each other’s histories. Once bound together through communist ideology and shared opposition to Western capitalism, the Soviet Union and Maoist China later became bitter rivals, with tensions along their 4,300km (2,670-mile) border bringing the two countries close to conflict during the Cold War.
However, that border has since transformed from a frontier of insecurity into one of strategic cooperation and trade. (Int’l News Desk)
