BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese military announced Wednesday that it would hold an annual naval exercise and conduct a maritime joint patrol with Russian forces next month. Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said that the Joint Sea 2025 exercise would be held in the air and seas near the Russian port city of Vladivostok, which lies across the sea from Japan's west coast. Last year,the drillwas held off southern China in the South China Sea. The Chinese and Russian governments havedeepened their tiesin recent years, with China providing an economic lifeline to Russia in the face of Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. European leadersasked Chinaagain last week to use its influence to pressure Russia to end the war, now in its fourth year, but there was no sign that Beijing would do so. Japan's Defense Ministry said inan annual reportearlier this month thatChina's growing military cooperation with Russiaposes serious security concerns. Zhang said the exercise and patrol are part of an annual cooperation plan and are not aimed at any other country or related to the current international or regional situation. He didn't provide specific dates for the drill or the joint patrol in the Pacific, which he said would be the sixth of its kind. Zhang, speaking at a monthly press conference, criticized ongoing drills that the U.S. Air Force is conducting with Japan and other partners in the western Pacific. Resolute Force Pacific is the largest contingency-response exercise ever conducted by the Air Force in the region, according to the U.S. military. "The U.S. has been blindly flexing muscles in the Asia-Pacific region and attempting to use military drills as a pretext to gang up, intimidate and pressure other countries, and undermine peace and stability in the region," Zhang said. The Air Force has said the exercise will train its forces to maintain readiness and execute missions under stress to demonstrate their ability to defend the United States and partner nations in the Pacific.
