China Military Exercises: This week, China is conducting military exercises with Belarus, located on NATO’s eastern border. This is being seen as increasing tension between Beijing and the US-led NATO alliance. China is conducting ‘anti-terrorism’ exercises on the soil of Russia’s ally Belarus at a time when the NATO alliance’s summit is being held in Washington. The Russia-Ukraine war remains the most important issue in the NATO summit. During this time, NATO countries are announcing to provide defense equipment to Ukraine.
Analysts believe that by conducting such military exercises at the time of the summit, Beijing is warning the NATO alliance. There have been military exercises between China and Belarus before, but this is the first military exercise since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. Actually, Ukraine is an ally of NATO countries, hence this military exercise has become very important.
Military exercises in the city of Brest
According to a statement issued by the Chinese Defense Ministry on Wednesday, this military exercise began on July 8 in the city of Brest, which is located on the border with Poland. The statement said that this exercise will continue till the middle of July. At present, exact information about how many Chinese soldiers are involved in this exercise has not been given. The statement said that both the countries are working to ‘improve combat techniques, deepen cooperation and communication between the armies’.
China’s clear message to NATO
Chinese officials stressed that the exercise ‘is not against any particular country.’ But Poland’s Defense Ministry has criticized the timing of the exercise. Analysts say that the date and place of the exercise were not chosen coincidentally, but China wanted to send a message to NATO. Kelly Grieco of the Stimson Center foreign policy and defense think tank told AFP that ‘multilateral exercises are often used to send political signals.’
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