- BEIJING (Reuters) - China
and Russia began their first joint military exercises on Thursday aimed
at boosting cooperation between the former adversaries and sending a message
to the United States about their growing influence.
-
- Eight days of war games between the giant neighbours,
who share a 4,300-km (2,700-mile) border, also present a commercial opportunity
for Russia, China's biggest supplier of arms and weapons technology, to
flog its wares, analysts say.
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- "The main target is the United States. Both sides
want to improve their position for bargaining in terms of security, politics
and economics," said Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations
at the People's University of China.
-
- Both countries say "Peace Mission 2005", which
involves 10,000 troops and army, navy and air force exercises, is aimed
at building ties between their militaries and analysts say it is not targeted
at any third country.
-
- "Military cooperation is linked with political and
economic cooperation as part of a bigger package," said Robert Karniol,
Asia-Pacific editor for Jane's Defence Weekly. "It's not an adversarial
posture."
-
- But with the drills also helping to "strengthen
the capability of the two armed forces in jointly striking international
terrorism, extremism and separatism", according to China's Xinhua
news agency, they are likely to be viewed with concern by others in the
region.
-
- The word separatism will give pause for thought to the
residents of Taiwan, the self-governed island China claims as its own and
which it has vowed must return to its rule -- by force if necessary.
-
- Once Cold War foes, ties between Beijing and Moscow have
been growing closer, in part due to China's efforts to tap into Russian
energy resources to feed its booming economy. The two are also players
in six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear crisis, reflecting shared security
interests.
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- STABILITY
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- Russia and China also see common ground in Central Asia,
both in trying to ensure political turmoil in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan
does not spill into their borders and in checking the U.S. presence in
the region.
-
- After last year's "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine,
when demonstrators propelled a pro-Western government to power following
street protests against rigged elections, Russia took the initiative to
upgrade the scale of the exercise with China, Jin said.
-
- In July, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO),
a regional security forum grouping China and Russia with the Central Asian
states, told U.S.-led troops to fix a date for their departure from military
bases in the region.
-
- That, along with the fact observers from other SCO countries
will be at the war games, is further fuelling theories they are intended
to send a message to Washington.
-
- "This is above all an assault on the uni-polar world
that has so suited Washington since the end of the Cold War," Russian
daily Nezavismaya gazeta said.
-
- The United States said the exercises supported a shared
goal of regional stability, but added a word of caution.
-
- "We would hope that anything that they do is not
something that would be disruptive to the current atmosphere in the region,"
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
-
- The exercises are taking place in the Russian Pacific
near Vladivostok and in the Chinese coastal province of Shandong and run
through August 25.
-
- With China gradually overhauling its military, streamlining
troop numbers and buying high-tech weapons platforms from abroad, the war
games are more likely to result in a shopping spree than any aggressive
posturing.
-
- Analysts say rather than cause alarm, the exercises should
also be seen as making both militaries behave with more transparency and
in line with international norms.
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- "I think they finally figured out it might be useful
to learn something from other people," Karniol said of China.
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