The visiting chief of staff of Russia's army is denying reports that planned Russian-Chinese military exercises are meant as practice for a Chinese attack on Taiwan, saying the activity isn't directed at any third country, according to Chinese and Russian news reports.
General Yuri Baluyevsky said yesterday that the planned exercise is meant to build strategic ties between the former Cold War rivals. He made the comments during meetings with Premier Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders.
Baluyevsky dismissed as "pure fiction" reports by Russian media that the excercises were a rehearsal for an invasion of Taiwan, the self-ruled nation that the communist Beijing government claims as its territory.
Baluyevsky said the exercises are not "against any third country," China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. Beijing and Moscow announced plans in December for their first joint military exercises, adding to a growing alliance between the former Cold War rivals.
"It is a new way of cooperation between the two militaries, aimed at improving the training capabilities of the two militaries and boosting their cooperation," Xinhua quoted Baluyevsky.
The Russian general arrived in Beijing amid tensions over the new Chinese "Anti-Secession" Law that authorizes an attack if Taiwan pursues formal independence.
Baluyevsky said they would be held in the autumn and would involve both ground and naval forces, according to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass. That indicated they would take place on China's coast, rather than the northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang or some other inland region, as Russian news reports have suggested.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported this week that China had proposed holding the exercises in Zhejiang, a coastal province near Taiwan. It said Russia was pushing for Xinjiang, due to its proximity to Central Asia, where both governments are worried about potential Islamic terrorism.
"Beijing is trying to use Russia as an additional lever of pressure on the disobedient island," the newspaper said.
The exercises will involve Il-76 transport planes with paratroopers, Tu-95MS bombers firing cruise missiles at targets in the sea and Su-27SM fighter jets simulating coverage of ground forces, according to Russian media reports.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS