Putin observes joint & large-scale military drills with China, India, other nations, in Russia's Far East

PressTV
Tue, 06 Sep 2022 14:09 UTC

© AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C), accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L), oversees the Vostok-2022 military exercises, at the Sergeevskyi training grounds, outside the city of Ussuriysk, on the Russian Far East, September 6, 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has attended large-scale military exercises in his country's far east involving thousands of troops from China and the militaries of several other nations.

Putin observed the joint war games, dubbed the Vostok-2022 (East 2022), which began at the beginning of September and are being held on training grounds in the waters off Russia's eastern coast, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told local news agencies on Tuesday.

The drills involve troops from several ex-Soviet nations as well as China, India, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, and Syria.

More than 50,000 soldiers and more than 5,000 units of military equipment, including 140 aircraft and 60 ships, are involved in the exercises, which run until Wednesday. China sent more than 2,000 troops along with more than 300 military vehicles, 21 combat aircraft, and three warships to take part in the drills, according to Chinese news reports.

As part of the drills, the Russian and Chinese navies in the Sea of Japan practiced joint action to protect sea communications and provide support for ground forces in coastal areas.

The Russian Defense Ministry released video of the naval part of the exercises on Tuesday, showing Russia's Pacific Fleet practicing launching Kalibr cruise missiles, which it said had successfully struck a target more than 300 km away.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Colonel Tan Kefei said last week that his country's participation in Vostok-2022 aimed to deepen "cooperation between the militaries of the participating countries, enhance the level of strategic cooperation among all participating parties, and enhance the ability to jointly respond to various security threats."

Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, declared a "no-limits" partnership between their countries in February, promising to collaborate more closely against the West.

India has also sent an army contingent to the drills. Russia is the biggest supplier of military hardware to India.

Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February. Ever since, the US and its NATO allies have unleashed sanctions on Moscow and supplied heavy weaponry to Kiev.

China has said the United States is the "main instigator" of the conflict by supporting NATO expansion and imposing sanctions on Moscow.

Comment: Russia showcases its freshly-deployed anti-ship missiles:

Russia's Bastion anti-ship missile system has now been used in a live-fire exercise on the Far Eastern island of Matua, the Defense Ministry has reported. The system was tested during recent drills on an island chain that has long been the center of a territorial dispute with Japan.

Matua is part of the Kuril Archipelago, a group of islands stretching from Russia's Kamchatka to the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Last December, the Russian Defense Ministry reported boosting anti-ship defenses in the area with Bastion launchers stationed on Matua. Tuesday's training exercise was the first time they were reported to have been used.

According to the synopsis of the exercise released by the Defense Ministry, the launchers were moved into attack positions to fire at a simulated foreign warship that had violated Russian territorial waters in an attempt to land troops on one of the Kuril Islands. Once the ship moved "into a critical range," it was engaged with an Oniks missile, which Bastion launchers carry.

Japan contests Russian territorial claims to the four Kuril Islands that are located closest to its territory. The dispute, which stems from World War II, is the reason why Russia and Japan never signed a peace treaty. Moscow has previously ruled out relinquishing the islands to Japan, with one of the considerations being that Tokyo could militarize them.

The long-running diplomatic spat was exacerbated this year after Japan joined the US in imposing anti-Russian sanctions over its operation in Ukraine.

This week, Moscow scrapped a 1999 agreement with Tokyo that had allowed Japanese citizens to visit two of the disputed islands under a simplified procedure. The Russian Foreign Ministry also reported a full suspension of talks on the status of the islands and on projects to develop them economically together with Japan.

As noted above, Russia has every reason to believe that Japan would willingly do the US' belligerent bidding. Also of note is the significant military base on its island of Okinawa - which is also widely despised by locals: Russia suspends fishing deal with Japan near disputed islands after Tokyo fails to pay & ramps up military exercises with NATO