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More than just neighbours

Vladimir Radyuhin

THE WEEK-LONG Russia-China joint war games that ended on Thursday have added a military dimension to the strengthening strategic relationship between the world's largest and the world's most populous nations.

Code-named "Peace Mission-2005" the first-ever join military exercise by the two armed forces has far exceeded its official anti-terrorist scenario.

Over 9,000 Chinese troops and 1,800 elite Russian soldiers staged a mock airborne attack on a coastline captured by "rebels," as long-range bombers and fighters fired missiles at enemy forces at sea and on shore, and surface warships and submarines tracked down and destroyed an enemy submarine.

Western media and analysts interpreted the war games as above all a warning to Taiwan not to declare de jure independence. In fact, the exercises had far broader implications.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, who watched the manoeuvres jointly with his Chinese counterpart Cao Gangchuan, said the China-Russia "strategic cooperative partnership" had entered a new stage and was emerging as "a guarantee of security in the Asia-Pacific region."

Mr. Ivanov's routine reassurance that Russia and China were not going to set up "any military blocs," did little to dispel the impression that the two countries were ready to pool their military strengths to jointly challenge the U.S. domination of the region.

Strategic cooperation

The unprecedented military manoeuvres demonstrated the new thrust of the two countries' strategic cooperation to stop the U.S. push for control over energy-rich Central Asia and the Caspian.

Following the U.S.-sponsored "tulip revolution" in Kyrgyzstan in March and the foiled Opposition uprising in Uzbekistan in May, Russia and China joined hands to stop the U.S. push into the region.

Meeting in Moscow in early July, Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao issued a 21st Century World Order Declaration denouncing attempts to "ignore objective processes of social development of sovereign states and impose on them alien models of social and political systems."

Three days later the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation led by Russia and China asked the U.S. to set a deadline for its military presence in Central Asia. In a follow-up, Uzbekistan demanded the withdrawal of a U.S. airbase from its territory within 180 days. U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rushed to the region to persuade Kyrgyzstan to drop its demand for the pullout of a U.S. airbase in that country in exchange for more economic aid. He also won reassurances from Tajikistan for continued use of its military facilities by the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Earlier this week the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, General John Abizaid, held talks in Turkmenistan on "the security situation and partnership of the United States with regional countries." The visit came amid reports that Washington was seeking to open an air base in Turkmenistan to compensate for loss of the base in Uzbekistan, and to draw

Turkmenistan into the "Caspian Guardian," a Washington project to deploy American forces in the Caspian region under the pretext of protecting oil and gas pipelines.

Russia and China have responded with plans to give a military dimension to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Summing up the results of the Russian-Chinese war games, a high-placed Russian military source said that similar military manoeuvres might be conducted next year by SCO member-states.

"Even though SCO is a strictly political organisation, it has a military component, whose role will steadily rise," the source said.

Russia's General Staff chief Yury Baluevsky did not rule out that the Russian and Chinese militaries "may be tasked by SCO to carry out some or other missions in the region."

Intriguingly, Russia is inviting India, which last month was granted observer status in the SCO along with Iran and Pakistan, to join the planned SCO military drills. "It would not be bad if such countries as Russia, India, and China staged joint military exercises," the Russian military source was quoted as telling Russian news agencies on Friday.

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