China to join Russia in war games as Beijing’s ties to Washington unravel
- PLA among forces from eight nations to take part in six-day military exercise next month
China will join Russia and six other countries in a six-day military exercise involving about 128,000 service personnel next month, a sign of closer bilateral ties as Beijing and Washington become increasingly estranged.
The People’s Liberation Army is one of seven forces invited to join “Tsentr – 2019” (Centre-2019), a series of war games on September 16-21, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The exercises will take place in two phases at eight ranges across Russia and the Caspian Sea, and involve 600 aircraft, as many as 15 warships, 250 tanks and 20,000 pieces of military equipment.
The first phase will include anti-terrorist drills, counter air strike operations and reconnaissance, and the second will focus on troop management and simulated combat.
The war games – which will also include Pakistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – will take place a year after Russia hosted Chinese forces for Vostok 2018 in eastern Siberia near the Chinese border, where 300,000 personnel took part in the largest military drill in Russian history.