Mr. Putin this week called Mrs. Pelosi’s visit a “thoroughly planned provocation” by the U.S. to sow chaos. China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday welcomed the remarks and said they demonstrate “high-level strategic coordination between China and Russia, and the firm support the two countries have rendered each other on issues concerning their core interests.”
Clear limits exist in the Russia-China relationship, which has often been deeply troubled in the past. Beijing has criticized Western governments for cutting trade relations with Russia in an effort to penalize Moscow for the Ukraine invasion and continued to buy its energy exports, but many of China’s biggest government companies have also appeared to quietly abide by some of the sanctions.
The Russian and Chinese militaries have practiced together on various occasions in recent years, often sparking protests from the U.S. and other nations. Details are limited about the coming military exercises, which are known as Vostok 2022, referring to the Russian word for East. Moscow hosts similar large-scale wargames annually and rotates them between different regions.
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said that most of the countries involved routinely participate in exercises with the U.S. as well.
“We don’t read anything into their engagements in this activity,” Ned Price said Wednesday. “The broader point is that we have seen a burgeoning relationship, including in the security realm, between [China] and Russia.”
China’s three-sentence statement said the coming event aims to deepen practical and friendly cooperation between participating countries and is unrelated to the “current international and regional situation,” likely referring to Ukraine and Taiwan.
They follow a series of similar military exercises in Asia, where China’s air force in recent days has flown alongside Thai jets and U.S. Army troops have practiced in Indonesia with allied forces, including Australia and Japan.
When Russia hosted Vostok exercises in 2018, it described the scale as unprecedented since the Soviet era. It said 300,000 troops participated along with 1,000 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, 80 ships, and 36,000 tanks, armored and other vehicles.
As a first-time participant in the Vostok exercises in 2018, China said it sent 3,200 soldiers, along with more than 1,000 pieces of weaponry and 30 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Thomas Graham, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Russia specialist on the National Security Council, said the actual number of combatants in such exercises tend to be smaller than the advertised numbers, but in 2018 the militaries did demonstrate a degree of interoperability, such as in the command structure and sharing communications. The question now, he said: “Is this an exercise that shows the two militaries can fight together in a significant way or is it largely a propaganda show?”
Russia’s Defense Ministry has sought to play down the participation of other states in the coming exercises and wave off doubt about its military capabilities as it suffers the high costs of prosecuting its war in Ukraine. In July, Russian officials warned “that a number of foreign media are spreading inaccurate information about alleged mobilization activities.” They said that only part of Russia’s armed forces was involved in Moscow’s military action in Ukraine and the number was sufficient enough to fulfill Mr. Putin’s goals in the campaign.
