A Chinese naval fleet held a scheduled military exercise with Russian navy in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad to strengthen their cooperation.
The “Joint Sea-2017” exercise follows similar ones held last year, and more exercises will be held in late July in the Baltic Sea, and in mid-September in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk.
The theme of this year’s drills was “joint rescue and protection of maritime economic activities”.
The exercise illustrates the intensified cooperation between Russia and China in recent years in spite of lingering challenges in their bilateral relationship.
They have previously held naval drills in the fiercely-contested South China Sea which China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims over.