Russia, China Vow To Expand Military Cooperation
Russian-Chinese military exercises in August
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6 September 2005 -- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said today Russia and China plan to intensify military cooperation, including the use of more joint military exercises.
However he stressed that Moscow and Beijing will not seal a formal alliance into a military bloc. Ivanov was speaking after meeting his Chinese counterpart Cao Gangchuan in Moscow.
The meeting came after the two states carried out their first ever joint military exercises last month in the Shandong
Peninsula in China's northeast.
Ivanov said the exercises went well: "The overall assessment of these exercises both by China and Russia is positive. These [exercises] allowed us to achieve a new quality of our mature strategic partnership."
Cao noted the two militaries demonstrated a "high level of partnership" during the exercises. Analysts say a shared concern over a perceived dominant role of the United States in global affairs has brought the former Cold War rivals China and Russia closer together.
Cao ends his official visit to Russia on 10 September.
(AFP/Reuters)