TIRANA, August 29 – Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that it will launch military drills in the country’s east involving China and a number of other countries.
The Vostok 2022 exercises will be held September 1-7, the ministry said. It added that foreign contingents had already arrived at a training center in in the coastal Primorsky region and had begun preparing for the drills and receiving equipment and weapons.
The drills will involve China, India, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Algeria, Syria and a number of former Soviet states, said a report carried by DW on Monday.
Beijing has stressed, according to Financial Times on Monday, that its participation in the Vostok exercises is “unrelated to the current international and regional situation”. Russia and China last held joint military exercises in China last year, and Washington has said it does not read any new significance into the latest drills. Still, “the fact that Vostok means ‘east’ tells you everything you need to know”, said a western defence adviser, pointing to Moscow’s support for Beijing when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which China views as a renegade province. Putin described Pelosi’s trip as a “carefully planned provocation”.
State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said that while warming ties between China and Russia undermined global security, Washington did not “read anything” into the drills, according to Al Jazeera.
“Most of the participating countries also routinely participate in a wide array of military exercises and exchanges with the United States as well,” he told a press conference.
Russia’s eastern military district includes part of Siberia and has its headquarters in Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border.
/Argumentum.al
