- Nearly 10,000 troops from Russia and China will participate
in the first joint military exercises between the two countries scheduled
for August 18-25, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.
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- The exercises, dubbed "Peace Mission 2005"
and involving army, navy, air force, marine, airborne and logistics units,
will be held in Vladivostok in Russia's Far East, and in the coastal Chinese
province of Shandong and nearby waters, it said.
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- "The exercises are not aimed at a third party or
concerned with the interests of any third country," the Chinese defense
ministry said in a statement.
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- Relations between China and Russia, formerly the Soviet
Union, were strained by decades of mistrust during the Cold War, but the
two nuclear powers have found much common ground in recent years and the
military relationship has been blossoming, Reuters points out.
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- Both are leading members of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, which in July called for U.S.-led troops to fix a date to
pull out of bases in Central Asia. Russia is also a major supplier of weapons
to China.
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- China and Russia have invited the defense ministers from
other members of the organization and observer states to watch the joint
exercises.
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- The point of the drills was "to deepen Sino-Russian
mutual trust, promote mutual friendship and enhance the cooperation and
coordination of the two armed forces".
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- They will also "help strengthen the capability of
the two armed forces in jointly striking at international terrorism, extremism
and separatism", the statement reads.
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