Russia and China give the West a large-scale armed response
Joint exercises with Russia “West/Interaction-2021” have begun in China. Thus, Moscow and Beijing are sending an unambiguous signal to the West, experts say.
Kommersant writes about this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The exercise will last until August 13 and will involve 13 troops, with the Russians using Chinese weapons for the first time.
Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics Vasily Kashin draws attention to the fact that the current maneuvers are the beginning of a series of major exercises in which military personnel of the two countries will take part this year: for example, the SCO “Peace Mission” exercises are planned for September in Russia. 2021”, in addition, Moscow invited the SCO member countries to take part in its strategic command and staff exercises “Zapad-2021”.
The expert clarified that until 2018, Russia and China took part jointly only in the SCO land exercises “Peaceful Mission”, which took place once every one or two years, and in the annual naval exercises “Maritime Cooperation”.
“Now Russia and China can hold three very large ground-air exercises, as well as other regular events, in one year. This means that cooperation between the two countries in the military-technical field clearly goes beyond the fight against terrorism and can be seen as a response to growing American military activity along the borders of China and Russia,” says Kashin.
“The point of such exercises is not only to increase the combat capability of the two armies and their readiness for joint action. In addition to the purely military-technical field, the “West / Interaction-2021” maneuvers have a significant added value, since they increase the geopolitical capitalization of Russia and China in the eyes of the West,” says Alexander Lomanov, Deputy Director of IMEMO RAS.
According to him, many in the West proceed from the fact that there cannot be truly close interaction, including in the military-technical field, between Russia and China, since there are hidden internal contradictions between these countries, which in a certain moment supposedly it will be possible to play.
“In this regard, the maneuvers send those forces in the West who expect to divide Moscow and Beijing a clear signal that Russia and China are precisely a collective value in modern geopolitics,” Lomanov emphasized.
And the director of the Center for Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitry Mosyakov, is convinced that the intensification of American policy in the Chinese and Russian directions is forcing Moscow and Beijing to look for new ways to counter the growing pressure from the United States and its allies, who consider these two countries the main threats to their security .
He adds that “the qualitatively new level of interaction demonstrated by the militaries of Russia and China during the West/Interaction 2021 maneuvers reminds the West and the Indo-Pacific region that the idea of isolating Beijing and creating a united anti-Chinese front is ultimately unviable.”
Russia and China are giving the West a massive military response.