A major row erupted between China and Russia over the location for joint military exercises, a Russian newspaper reported on Thursday.
According to the Kommersant daily, the Russian military had suggested the Xinjiang autonomous region of China, because of the area's problem with Uighur separatists and its proximity to Central Asia, a focus for the international fight against terrorism.
However, Beijing flatly rejected the proposal, and instead suggested Zhejiang Province near Taiwan.
Exercises in this area, the Kommersant noted in its report, "would look too provocative and trigger a strong reaction not only in Taiwan, but in the United States and Japan, which recently included the island in their zone of common strategic interests."
"Beijing is trying to use Russia as an additional lever of pressure on the disobedient island," it said.
However, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Thursday that the two countries had agreed on details of their first joint military exercise, to be held in autumn, after Russian Chief of General Staff Yury Baluyevsky met his Chinese counterpart,Chief of General Staff Liang Guanglie (梁光烈), in Beijing.
Xinhua said the two generals had agreed on the make-up of troops, arms and equipment for the military exercise.
Due to the Russia's insistence, the exercise was shifted north to the Shandong Peninsula, the Kommersant said.
Baluyevsky said the exercise was aimed at boosting cooperation between the militaries of the two countries and improving training capabilities, reflecting closer ties between the two countries, Xinhua said.
"Russian paratroopers, marines and other forces will take part in the exercise," Baluyevsky was quoted as saying.
Liang also praised what he called the strengthening strategic partnership between China and Russia, Xinhua reported.
"Closer cooperation and exchanges between the two armies are of great importance in promoting the cooperation between the two countries and maintaining regional and international security," Liang was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
The joint exercises had originally been planned for last August.
The exercises will involve Il-76 transport planes carrying paratroopers, Tu-95MS strategic bombers firing cruise missiles at simulated targets in the sea and Su-27SM fighter jets simulating coverage of ground forces, according to Russian media reports.
The exercises are seen as part of Russia's desire to strengthen military cooperation with China, in response to the cooling of relations with the US and other Western nations. China, for its part, has been courting oil-rich Russia as it seeks to diversify its energy sources to feed its booming economy.
Russian military officials have said they also hope to encourage China to buy the bombers involved in the training.
Also see story:
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS