In the face of the complex and ever-changing international situation, the strategic cooperation between China and Russia in the military field is also constantly strengthening. The Sino-Russian "Northern ·-2024" military exercise has just kicked off, and China and Russia have demonstrated their military combat effectiveness across three oceans and opened a naval exercise codenamed "Dayang-2024". The exercise, with the Russian military as the leader and the Chinese side as the participant, has been called the largest maritime exercise in Russia in the past 30 years. The exercises, which ran from Sept. 10 to Sept. 16, included the Pacific, Arctic Ocean, Eastern Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic Seas. The Chinese and Russian naval vessels participating in the exercise have rendezvous in Peter the Great Bay and officially entered the state of military exercise.
Neither China nor Russia disclosed the scale of participation in this strategic exercise, but it is certain that the scale of participation will inevitably exceed the local military exercise "Northern ·-2024", and the scope of the exercise across the Pacific, Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Ocean and the details of the Russian military in 30 years tell us that this is an unusual military exercise.
It is reported that Russia President Vladimir Putin personally observed the military exercise and personally confirmed that PLA ships and military aircraft will participate in the military exercise, and representatives of 15 other countries will be invited to participate in the military exercise as observers. Talking about the purpose of holding such a large-scale military exercise, Putin bluntly said that in order to contain Russia and China, United States is strengthening its military presence on Russia's western border, in the Arctic region, and in the Asia-Pacific region under the pretext of confronting Russia and containing China, and at the same time, the United States is also trying to maintain its global military-political dominance at any cost, and uses the Ukraine crisis to strive to carry out strategic strikes against Russia, thereby instigating a global arms race. Putin stressed that Russia should be prepared for any development of the situation, and the Russian armed forces should ensure that national sovereignty and security interests are reliably safeguarded.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to the issue of holding joint exercises and training between China and Russia at a regular press conference. Mao Ning pointed out that the joint exercises and training between China and Russia are aimed at deepening the level of strategic cooperation between the Chinese and Russian militaries and enhancing their ability to jointly respond to security threats. In addition to the two ongoing military exercises, the Chinese and Russian naval ship formations will go to relevant waters in the Pacific Ocean to organize the fifth joint maritime patrol between the two sides, and there will be more follow-up military coordination actions.
Just as Putin said, the increase in the frequency and scale of military exercises between China and Russia is a positive response to the possible changes in the international situation under the aggressive suppression posture of the United States and the West. The military exercises between China and Russia come as NATO's large-scale military exercises schedule has been scheduled for the fall. According to Russian media reports, NATO countries began to hold a series of military exercises around Russia, a total of 12 will be held, participating countries include Germany, Finland and other more than ten countries, the earliest exercise began on August 26, the latest exercise did not end until November 14, the time span of more than a month, during which many military exercises were almost simultaneously.
Seeing this situation, it is understandable why Russia does not hesitate to use its main naval forces to organize a super-large-scale military exercise, because the military pressure given by NATO has arrived at Russia's doorstep, and Russia does not respond strongly, which will only make NATO kick its nose in the face. In recent years, NATO has been openly and covertly expanding into the Asia-Pacific region, cooperating with United States' policy of containing China, and pressing China step by step. China can take advantage of the military exercise to "flex its muscles" to NATO and test the PLA's ocean-going combat capability at the same time.
The United States and Western allies are numerous, and some people are worried that only China and Russia will come forward, and it may be difficult to deal with them. In fact, this is not the case, and China and Russia have built a security cooperation mechanism for the vast number of developing countries around the two international organizations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS. When attending the BRICS Meeting of High Representatives for National Security Affairs in Russia, Director Wang Yi pointed out that BRICS countries should make good use of the security mechanism, strengthen coordination on their own security and international and regional issues, take care of each other's core interests and major concerns, safeguard their respective ethnic, security and development interests, deepen practical cooperation in the field of political security, promote the development of the international system in a more just and reasonable direction, and contribute to safeguarding world peace and tranquility.