Russia, China To Stage First Ever Joint Military Exercises: Interfax

DRAGON SPACE

Russia is as eager as China to show off the latest military technology for sale.

Moscow (AFP) Dec 27, 2004
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday that Russia and China would conduct their first ever joint military exercises in the latter half of next year on Chinese territory, news reports said.

Ivanov reported to President Vladimir Putin that the exercises would include the army, navy, air force units, submarines, "as well as possibly, strategic bombers," the Interfax report quoted him as saying.

"We have agreed, with China, for the first time in history, to conduct in the second half of the year fairly large training exercises on the territory of China," ITAR-TASS quoted Ivanov as telling Putin.

The comments came as Ivanov reported the military's plans for military war games for 2005.

These would include April war games in Tajikistan, near the Afghan border, as well as naval training exercises with France "that will include nuclear forces," Interfax quoted him as saying.

Russia and China have had tense relations, with the two sides fighting two brief border wars in the 1950s, but the border dispute was resolved earlier this year when Moscow gave up rights to a few small disputed islands.

The joint military war games were agreed during a visit to Beijing by Ivanov earlier this month.

Earlier news reports from China said the exercises would focus on the joint fight against terrorism in the turbulent Central Asian region.

Russia remains one of China's top arms suppliers, with a 15-year old arms embargo in effect from the European Union.

Russian-Chinese defense cooperation gained momentum in the 1990s after Western nations imposed the embargo following the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Cooperation was cemented in 2000 at a summit meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his then Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin.

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DRAGON SPACE

300 Million Chinese Drinking Harmful Water Because Of Pollution: Official

Beijing (AFP) Dec 22, 2004
Some 300 million people are drinking unsafe or harmful water because more than 70 percent of China's rivers and lakes are polluted, a top government official said Wednesday.

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