Joint defense drill set for next year

Beijing-Moscow exercise will not target third party, Chinese military official says

China and Russia announced on Oct 11 that they will conduct an anti-missile joint exercise next year, as the United States plans to deploy a missile defense system close to their borders.

The drill, which will be the second of its kind, was confirmed at a joint news briefing on the sidelines of the seventh Xiangshan Forum, a high-end defense affairs dialogue, in Beijing.

The US and the Republic of Korea have infuriated Beijing and Moscow by advancing a plan to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, a missile-defense system. Its radar will have a radius of 2,000 kilometers and could cover parts of China and Russia.

Major General Cai Jun of the Central Military Commission's Joint Staff Department, described the plan to deploy the anti-missile system as "damaging to global strategic balance and regional security and stability".

Cai says China and Russia held their first joint computer-simulated anti-missile drill in May in Moscow, with the aim of training both sides in air-defense and anti-missile actions.

He did not elaborate on the potential format of the second joint drill, but says the exercise "will not target any third party".

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told the forum on Oct 11 that the US is using tension on the Korean Peninsula to deploy excessive weapons, and says THAAD is "not just a regional issue" as it will increase tension.

Ji Zhiye, president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, says an anti-missile drill "is not necessarily targeting a specific country or direction, but it is a fact that there are only several countries that could threaten China and Russia with missiles".

THAAD will "deal a blow to global strategic balance", and both Beijing and Moscow should "make clear their negative attitudes toward THAAD" by holding their second drill next year, Ji says.

Without directly naming the US, Chang Wanquan, a State councilor and minister of national defense, told the forum that "a stand-alone country or a few seek absolute advantage in the military domain and consistently reinforce military alliances".

Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, says China and Russia lag behind the US in the anti-missile field, and their cooperation could "narrow the respective gap with the US".

Luo Yuan, a senior researcher at the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Science, says both countries have a long history of anti-missile cooperation, and with the threat of THAAD, "neither side should sit idly".

The two countries share great reserves of technology and viable options for containing THAAD, including technological cooperation and even joint exercises, to "avoid the worst scenario", Luo says.

New Zealand Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee says the US has attributed its plan to deploy THAAD to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear program.

"But I do think it simply indicates the need for greater dialogue by all countries" that have an interest in the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, he adds.

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