Chinese-Russian Military Exercises Continue

19 August 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Russia and China today started the second day of their first-ever joint military exercises by developing a unit that will stage a landing on a Chinese peninsula in order to end an ethnic conflict in a fictional country.

The eight-day event -- dubbed "Peace Mission 2005" -- involves some 8,000 Chinese soldiers and 1,800 Russian troops.

Russian Tu-22M long-range bombers and Tu-95 strategic bombers, along with 140 naval ships and submarines, will be used in the exercises centered in the Yellow Sea and on China's Shandong Peninsula.

On 18 August, Russian General Yurii Baluevskii said the first-time joint exercises mark "a great historic event" in Russia-China relations and do not aim to threaten any country.

(ITAR-TASS)