China and Russia strengthen ties with joint military maneuvers

In his first visit to China under President Xi Jinping, the Russian head of state Vladimir Putin has had a muscular welcome. With display of strength, who appreciates style. The Russian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held military exercises in waters off Shanghai, the city where both leaders will participate in a forum on security and cooperation in Asia and especially in a bilateral meeting sign thirty documents deepen an increasingly intense but always pragmatic relationship. And Beijing clearly wants to take the reins.

While leaders come to the meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held in Shanghai in the East China Sea, near Shanghai, the naval forces of China and Russia have appointment for a joint maneuvers from Tuesday until next Monday to highlight their growing level of cooperation.

According to official Chinese media, participating in these exercises 14 surface ships, two submarines nine warplanes, six helicopters and elite forces. They include some of the most iconic ships of Chinese PLA, such as missile destroyers Zhengzhou and Ningbo. This time will be the first time that the warships of both nations are mixed, as declared on Sunday the ” Number Two ” of the General Staff of the Chinese Defense Tian Zhong.

Both countries develop joint exercises regularly, and this is the third in as many years, following those held in the Yellow Sea in 2012 and held for ten months against Russian Eastern port of Vladivostok. These were, by then said the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, the largest that China has concluded with other states. According to Tian, the now seek to improve practical cooperation between the two armed forces and facilitate a coordinated response to common threats.

But that does not mean routine are to be held this week by chance. Xi and Putin want to make clear that the relationship between their two countries going through a great moment, just when the bonds of both countries with the great world power, the United States, not going through its best phase. Just hours before the bilateral meeting, Beijing and Washington were fighting in a new encounter, after the U.S. Justice Department announced that a grand jury has filed charges against five Chinese military personals in cyber espionage.

The events in Shanghai Xi also intends to convey a message of power. To the international community to make clear that alternatives to Washington and his famous pivot to Asia – Pacific. That the relationship between China and Russia through, as he said in his first trip to Moscow as president last year, ” its best”, and are politically Stallion, at least while their interests converge. In Ukraine, China will maintain its declared neutrality so far, without condemning Russia. And both will remain aligned with respect to other “hot spots ” of the world, the Iranian nuclear program and the situation in Syria.

But let Xi also wants Putin to record who buys and holds the purse strings. And the one with the shopping list and the wad of bills today is China. “China now has more confidence,” said Professor Wang Yiwei, School of International Relations at Renmin University in Beijing.

Among other things, Beijing is aware that Russia needs to find a buyer for its natural gas, to the deterioration of relations with the European Union following the Ukrainian crisis. It may, therefore, require a more advantageous price for signing a purchase agreement for Russian gas was trading a decade ago and the price was just as great stumbling block. China “does not need to follow the steps of Putin,” says Wang

On the table in the meeting between the two leaders there are other agreements. The business relationship is still far from its potential. Last year it was around 90,000 million, less than a third of China’s exchange with the United States and only one fifth of the People’s Republic has with the European Union. The goal is to raise $ 100,000 million for next year and double that figure by 2020. Has long spoken of agreements for the sale of Russian arms to its Asian neighbor. And Putin wants to persuade the Chinese to enter the Russian Far East investors.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on May 21 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.