Joint Russia-China War games under way .to protect Iran & former USSR Central Asia from USA? Was General Kevin Byrnes arrested because he was an agent of Russia and/or China? Carl
http://www.parapolitics.info/phorum/read.php?f=36&i=709&t=709_____________________________________________
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050818/ts_nm/china_russia_dc Russia, China open first joint military exercises By Lindsay Beck
Thu Aug 18, 6:02 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Russia began their first joint military exercises
on Thursday aimed at boosting cooperation between the former adversaries and
sending a message to the United States about their growing influence.
Eight days of war games between the giant neighbors, who share a 4,300-km
(2,700-mile) border, also present a commercial opportunity for Russia, China's
biggest supplier of arms and weapons technology, to flog its wares, analysts
say.
"The main target is the United States. Both sides want to improve their position
for bargaining in terms of security, politics and economics," said Jin Canrong,
a professor of international relations at the People's University of China.
Both countries say "Peace Mission 2005," which involves 10,000 troops and army,
navy and air force exercises, is aimed at building ties between their militaries
and analysts say it is not targeted at any third country.
"Military cooperation is linked with political and economic cooperation as part
of a bigger package," said Robert Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor for Jane's
Defense Weekly. "It's not an adversarial posture."
But with the drills also helping to "strengthen the capability of the two armed
forces in jointly striking international terrorism, extremism and separatism,"
according to China's Xinhua news agency, they are likely to be viewed with
concern by others in the region.
The word separatism will give pause for thought to the residents of Taiwan, the
self-governed island China claims as its own and which it has vowed must return
to its rule -- by force if necessary.
Once Cold War foes, ties between Beijing and Moscow have been growing closer, in
part due to China's efforts to tap into Russian energy resources to feed its
booming economy. The two are also players in six-party talks on
Russia and China also see common ground in Central Asia, both in trying to
ensure political turmoil in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan does not spill into their
borders and in checking the U.S. presence in the region.
After last year's "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, when demonstrators propelled a
pro-Western government to power following street protests against rigged
elections, Russia took the initiative to upgrade the scale of the exercise with
China, Jin said.
In July, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security forum
grouping China and Russia with the Central Asian states, told U.S.-led troops to
fix a date for their departure from military bases in the region.
That, along with the fact observers from other SCO countries will be at the war
games, is further fuelling theories they are intended to send a message to
Washington.
"This is above all an assault on the uni-polar world that has so suited
Washington since the end of the Cold War," Russian daily Nezavismaya gazeta
said.
The United States said the exercises supported a shared goal of regional
stability, but added a word of caution.
"We would hope that anything that they do is not something that would be
disruptive to the current atmosphere in the region," State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack said.
The exercises are taking place in the Russian Pacific near Vladivostok and in
the Chinese coastal province of Shandong and run through August 25.
With China gradually overhauling its military, streamlining troop numbers and
buying high-tech weapons platforms from abroad, the war games are more likely to
result in a shopping spree than any aggressive posturing.
Analysts say rather than cause alarm, the exercises should also be seen as
making both militaries behave with more transparency and in line with
international norms.
"I think they finally figured out it might be useful to learn something from
other people," Karniol said of China.
