China, Russia conduct joint Pacific military patrol

(COMBO) This combination of two images created on May 13, 2024 shows China’s President Xi Jinping (L) during the closing session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 10, 2024, and a pool photo distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik showing Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) meeting with commanders of units involved in the country’s military action in Ukraine, in Moscow on May 7, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit China this week on the invitation of leader Xi Jinping, Beijing’s foreign ministry said May 14, 2024. (Photo by GREG BAKER and Gavriil GRIGOROV / various sources / AFP) / Editor’s note: the image showing Russian President Vladimir Putin distributed by Russian state owned agency Sputnik

BEIJING, China — China and Russia conducted a joint naval patrol in the northern and western Pacific, Beijing’s defense ministry said Sunday, adding that the exercise was not “targeted” at any other nation.

The two countries have drawn closer in recent years and tout their friendship as having “no limits.” Both share hostile relations with US-led Western defense alliance NATO.

Beijing has further strengthened its diplomatic, economic, and military ties with Moscow since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

China, which has never condemned the invasion, maintains it is a neutral party to the conflict. However, Western leaders have criticized it for giving political and economic support to Russia, including trade in goods that have both civilian and military uses.

“According to the annual plan and the consensus between China and Russia, naval vessels of China and Russia recently carried out their fourth joint maritime patrol in the western and northern Pacific Ocean,” the Chinese defense ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

“This operation is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation,” it added.

No details were provided on the Pacific maneuvers, including the ships’ routes, their exact locations, or the nature of the forces involved.

On Friday, China said it was also conducting drills with Russia — known as Joint Sea-2024 — along its southern coast.

This came after NATO leaders declared Beijing had “become a decisive enabler” of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, and after Japan warned of a growing threat from Beijing’s strong ties with Moscow.

Beijing has rejected the criticisms.

The drills in the waters and airspace around Zhanjiang, a city in southern Guangdong province, are “to demonstrate the resolve and capabilities of the two sides in jointly addressing maritime security threats and preserving global and regional peace and stability”, the ministry said.

The Russian defense ministry said Saturday that two of its warships had arrived in Zhanjiang to take part in the joint naval drills, with an initial phase taking place from Monday to Wednesday.

The Pacific is a hotbed of international tensions due to sovereignty disputes between Beijing and several of its US-backed neighbors, such as Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

China and Russia hold joint military exercises regularly but their level of interoperability is greatly inferior to that of NATO, the European Union Institute for Security Studies said in a report in early July.

In 2023, ships from the two countries took part in a naval exercise off the US state of Alaska.