From the New York Times, via the San Francisco Chronicle:
China and Russia launched their most ambitious joint military exercises today, with naval ships, bombers, fighter planes and 10,000 troops massing on China’s northeast coast for maneuvers that the two countries say will show their deepening cooperation.
They say the exercise is not intended to threaten other countries, but to improve the ability of China and Russia to thwart terrorism and separatist uprisings on their borders. But the focus of those concerns is in Central Asia, while the exercises will be on the Pacific coast, 3,000 miles away.
See also “West unwittingly pushes Russia and China to rapprochement – expert” from RIA Novosti and “China-Russia relationship viewed from two ‘largest’” from People’s Daily.
