2013-08-19 — Russian and Chinese servicemen completed the joint antiterror exercise Peace Mission-2013 in Chelyabinsk Region that run through August 15. Lt-Gen Viktor Sevostyanov, commander of the Russian Air Force and Air Defence Force Second Command, told ITAR-TASS news agency how the experience gained during the drill will be taken into consideration by the Russian military’s combat training system.
Itar-Tass: Did the Russian servicemen gain a positive experience from the exercise?
Sevostyanov: The Chinese servicemen were cheering each other on, working as a team and generally being quite good at what they were doing.
Russian General gives a hug to his Chinese counterpart
The Chinese counterparts’ example motivated the Russian servicemen to teamwork. They made the effort to act as a single big and friendly family.
This means that there certainly was a positive experience, and that the formula I have invented actually works, including during such major drills.
Itar-Tass: Do you believe this esprit de corps will last, and will be adopted elsewhere in the Russian Army?
Sevostyanov: We will certainly do our best to use the morale demonstrated during the exercise as the foundation for our future personnel training efforts.
The very fact that Peace Mission 2013 was held in Russia’s Central Military District is a great achievement in and of itself.
The Chinese army aviation aircraft flew more than 4,000 km to attend the drill. We learnt to understand and work together with our Chinese colleagues.
I had attended several previous Peace Mission exercises, including the one held in China in 2009, so I have something to go on when appraising this latest drill.
According to my observations, the Chinese servicemen hold us in great respect and treat us as elder brothers. You can tell from the way they speak to us.
They have adopted a lot from the Soviet Army traditions, including with regard to personnel training. This was evident during the practical phase of Peace Mission 2013. The Chinese followed Soviet field manuals to the letter.
As for aviation, the Russian and Chinese pilots managed to attain complete synergy, even though the drill turned into a competition of sorts for them.
I believe that the Russian pilots’ performance was totally satisfactory; they had managed to eliminate the shortcomings revealed during the preparatory sorties.
Itar-Tass: How did you deal with the language barrier?
Sevostyanov: It is true that finding a common language with the PLA servicemen was the hardest part of our preparations for the drill and the exercise itself.
However, despite the obvious differences between the two languages, there exist several Chinese hieroglyphs and Russian words which are understandable to the respective counterpart, including to pilots. For example, the Russian and Chinese terms for “take off” are understood by the other country’s pilots.
They know the sequence of actions that has to follow this short order. The word “take off” may mean nothing to you but to servicemen, it means the aircraft’s acceleration from the beginning of the take-off run to the climbout.
Therefore, when the interpreter said that we were now discussing the take-off procedure, the servicemen understood what was going on.
Of course, in personal communication we sometimes had to exercise patience when trying to understand our Chinese colleagues. For example, when asked what time it is they will reply in a good two dozen words.
This is because they have to convey to you that 2000 hours, for example, is well into the afternoon but not entirely nighttime yet. There is no single term in Chinese that would describe 2000 hours.
Another problem is that Chinese underuse gesticulation. I experienced this personally when travelling with a Chinese driver and no interpreter. I attempted gestures to tell the driver to stop the vehicle but nothing happened.
Itar-Tass: What other difficulties did you encounter during the drill?
Sevostyanov: The two armies’ different units had just one hour to demonstrate their combat potential. In real life, an antiterror operation of this kind would last for several days.
Our hardest task was to coordinate the actions of the joint force, align the schedule of strikes, and fit the plan for joint actions into 60 minutes. We could not have accomplished this objective without extensive preparations.
Itar-Tass: How effective did the antiterror operation prove?
Sevostyanov: It is of great importance to the Chinese military that the drill was conducted jointly with the Russian Armed Forces. China is willing and ready to learn from us.
The PLA looks up to us, not to NATO armies. China would not stage a similar exercise with NATO troops. This friendship is beneficial to our army, since we have an extensive border with China.
We have a lot in common, despite the linguistic and cultural differences. We have established a good dialogue; we have common goals and objectives.
In my opinion, joint counteraction to terrorisms represents a very promising aspect of cooperation between the Russian and Chinese armed forces; this is something we are going to develop in future.
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Russia and China have agreed to conduct a joint naval drill in the Mediterranean Sea, a Russian media report cites the Defense Ministry. The countries’ fleets are currently involved in an intl operation to escort the Syrian chemical weapons stockpile.
The Defense Ministry said on Sunday that group of Russian naval officers deployed onboard a heavy nuclear missile cruiser "Peter the Great" visited Chinese frigate Yancheng.
“On board the Chinese patrol ship, Russian sailors discussed with their foreign counterparts the possibility of joint tactical exercises in the Mediterranean Sea. Under the agreement, such exercises can be carried out in the near future in an effort to improve the level of operational compatibility between Russian and Chinese warships during joint operations in the eastern Mediterranean,” the statement from the Ministry of Defense said.
The main aim of the joint naval exercise would be to increase the level of operational cooperation between the two navies designed to tackle terrorist threats and improve joint rescue operations at sea, the Ministry explained.
On January 7, both counties escorted the first consignment of Syrian chemical weapons materials that has left the country on a Danish ship. This became the first practical interaction between the Russian and the Chinese navies.
Image from mod.gov.cn / Li Xiao and Hu Quanfu
The Chinese Department of Defense noted that Captain Pyshklov, commanding officer of the Mediterranean Combat Group of the Russian Navy, praised the performance of the Yancheng during the escort operation, while his counterpart, Li Pengcheng spoke highly of the important role the Russian Navy played in the escort operation for the ships transporting Syria’s chemical weapons.
In July, Russia and China held a three-day joint naval military exercise. The “Naval Interaction-2013" in the open waters off the Port of Vladivostok became China’s largest overseas military exercises in terms of the number of troops deployed outside its territorial waters. Seven Chinese warships including four destroyers, two frigates and one comprehensive supply ship took part in the war games.
Both Russian and Chinese ships have polished their skills in joint air-defense and maritime replenishment. They have also practiced tackling submarine threats and tested their skills in joint escort and in rescuing a hijacked ship while shooting maritime targets.
Russia and China have regularly held joint naval drills since 2005 within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. However, “Naval Interaction-2013" was only the second exercise conducted outside the SCO: the first was held in April 2012.
In recent years, the Chinese navy has participated in a series of joint exercises in the Pacific and Indian oceans, while Chinese ground forces have taken part in land war games organized by the SCO.
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Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) gives an interview to a Russian TV channel in Sochi, Russia, Feb. 7, 2014. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)
SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said in an interview aired Saturday that he is "very satisfied" with the fruitful development of China-Russia relations.
The bilateral relationship has entered a phase that boasts the most solid foundation, the highest level of mutual trust and the greatest regional and global influence ever, he said in the exclusive interview with Rossiya TV.
Xi recalled that he paid a visit to Russia in March last year only a few days after taking over the Chinese presidency, during which he and President Vladimir Putin reached important consensus on and charted the course for further strengthening bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperation.
China-Russia cooperation, Xi added, has so far borne rich fruit in such fields as trade and economy, energy, advanced technology, people-to-people exchanges and international affairs, not only promoting the development and prosperity of both countries, but also helping safeguard international justice, stability and peace.
"I am very satisfied with the achievements in the development of China-Russia relations," he said.
Xi traveled to this Russian resort city on Thursday to attend Friday's opening ceremony of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games at the invitation of Putin. The three-day visit was his first foreign trip this year.
Describing China and Russia as good neighbors, good partners and good friends and calling Putin his old friend, Xi said he came to Russia to offer his congratulations in person over the Sochi Olympics as is customary for the Chinese people to do upon their neighbors' joyous occasions.
Referring to his latest meeting with Putin on Thursday, Xi said the two sides agreed to unswervingly support each other on issues concerning their core interests and turn political advantages in their relations into cooperation advantages.
The Sochi trip has marked a "good start" for the advancement of bilateral ties in 2014, added the president.
Related: Chinese president returns from Sochi Winter Olympics
BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing Saturday evening after attending the opening ceremony of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games in the Russian resort city of Sochi.
It was the first time a Chinese head of state attended an opening ceremony of a major sports event held overseas. Full story
Xi boosts Chinese athletes' morale in Sochi
SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met here Friday with his country's delegation to the 22nd Winter Olympic Games and gave a boost to the athletes' morale.
"The Chinese people are paying great attention to you," he told the delegates, noting that they traveled a long journey to this Russian resort city for the event during the Spring Festival. Full story
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What follows is a Google Translate translation from German to English. It’s a little rough, but still understandable. Here is the original German version: Militärbündnis: China und Russland nähern sich strategisch an – SPIEGEL ONLINE
While the West is trying to isolate Russia, China presents to the Vladimir Putin’s side. Working behind the scenes Moscow and Beijing already on plans for a military political alliance – an alliance that can change the balance of power in the world dramatically.
…
The kind words about Russia in the newspapers of the world’s largest membership political party. “Renmin Ribao”, the central organ of the Communist Party of China, with 70 million members, recently announced in an editorial line of: Given that the Ukraine “by the spirit of the Cold War covered” is, will be “the strategic approach of China and Russia to an anchor of world stability. ” With regard to the Ukraine the Chinese leading medium notes: “Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin has already forced the West to understand that there is no victory in the ‘Cold War’. ”
The strong words stand for a stringent strategy. In the conflict between Russia and the West, the most populous country in the world is on the side of the largest country. Beijing and Moscow are working on an alliance that can change the balance of power in the world dramatically. Although China has abstained from voting in the UN Security Council about the Russian military action in the Crimea from voting. But directed by the Communist Party press leaves no doubt about China’s position. “The U.S. and Europe look to Russia and Putin as a paper tiger,” sneers the Chinese newspaper “Global Times”. The leaf belongs to the holding of the KP central organ, and is of Chinese foreign intelligence close.
Underestimated Russia will
The West , the " Global Times" had " underestimated Russia's will to defend its core interests in Ukraine" . The strategy of the West, according to the paper , a support to " pro-Western Ukrainian government " does not work . This experiment leads " in a mess, to eliminate the the West does not have the capacity or not the wisdom ." The West , the Chinese forecast will be "losers of the fiasco in Ukraine" .
An editorial in the "Global Times" concludes: "We can not let Russia if it is in difficulties , China should be a reliable strategic partners How we make new friends. . . "
The offer from the People's Republic meets in Moscow with open ears . In his address to the State Duma and the Federation Council thanked Putin officially " the Chinese people " . Behind the scenes doing already more . Experts from the Russian Foreign Ministry is currently working on a draft contract for " military cooperation " with China. Details are not yet known, but the agreement envisaged is likely to go further than the contract for " good neighborliness, friendship and cooperation," Putin closed down in 2001 with China.
Already this Agreement provides for a "military and military-technical cooperation " by Russians and Chinese . So both countries are working in the Shanghai Organization for Security , joint maneuvers included. China is a major customer of Russian defense industry. After China were alone in the years 2004 to 2011, approximately 23 percent of Russian arms exports. The Chinese bought from the Russians , among other fighter aircraft , aircraft engines, diesel submarines and missile systems .
Chinese weapons wishes
With regard to the Americans , Moscow has the Chinese does not yet meet some weapons request . This could change soon. So Beijing would like to acquire nuclear -tipped missile submarines of the Russian " Project 949A " . Thus, even American aircraft carrier could be sunk in case of emergency .
Influential Manager of the Russian state arms trade already require to store any restraint in arms exports to China. When aircraft and military shipbuilding , according to experts in the industry , including major joint projects are conceivable .
The Chinese interest in arms cooperation also explains the attitude of Beijing to Kiev. According to estimates of the Stockholm research institute SIPRI Ukraine is the third largest supplier of arms of the People's Republic. 2012 alone, provided the Ukraine to China weapons worth 690 million U.S. dollars.
An approximation of Ukraine to NATO , so Chinese fears could end this cooperation. That's why China is strategically interested in Ukraine in the sphere of Russian influence . Therefore, China's shadow over the ailing Ukraine lies .
In addition, the new Chinese party chief Xi Jinping is a profound knowledge of Russian literature . So grows together what was before. After its establishment in October 1949, the People's Republic of China was formed with the Soviet Union the " camp of the people's democracies " , which also included the GDR. Even now both superpowers are reconnected by authoritarian state views . Their inner power and strength is often underestimated in the West.
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In what appears to be an effort to undermine the United States sanctions against Russia, China indicated to its state-owned Xinhua news agency that the government will agree during Russian President Putin’s May 20-21st visit to Shanghai to invest $18.46 billion in the Crimea. The amount of the investment is highly symbolic, since it exceeds the $17 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to the Ukraine. The Chinese action is part of a series of retaliatory responses to President Obama’s Asian trip in April that was dubbed by Asian media as the “China containment tour.” China and Russia are seeking to develop their own enhanced relationship to strategically contain the United States.
Geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group told the Business Insider blog, China is “the big winner from the Ukraine crisis -- everybody wants to work with them.”
He added, “I’d say not only are they ignoring U.S./E.U. sanctions, they’re actually taking advantage of them.” Beijing perceived U.S. President Obama’s late April trip to four Asian countries as an effort by the United States to interfere in their regional affairs. The President declared in Japan that a group of islands, claimed by both Japan and China, were covered by America’s security treaty with Japan. He followed up a few days later in the Philippines by inking of a 10-year agreement to increase U.S. forces there.
In direct retaliation to Obama’s actions, the Chinese military and state-controlled oil monopoly, CNOCC, moved a deep-water drilling rig to a spot just 120 miles off the coast of Vietnam on July 3rd. Vietnam claims the area as their territorial waters and the Chinese drilling site is in an oil exploration block where Vietnam’s state-owned oil monopoly and America’s ExxonMobil have discovered vast oil and gas reserves. The move sparked state-sponsored anti-Chinese riots across Vietnam that caused 27 deaths and at least 100 people wounded.
In what seems like a counter-retaliation, the U.S. Justice Department announced the indictment of five Chinese military hackers on May 19th. According to Bremmer, “The biggest structural problem between the U.S. and China is that the two countries are at war with each other over cyber.” Bremmer added: “the confrontation is surely growing. And this is an indication.”
Stratfor Global Intelligence reported that China will sign a memorandum of understanding with Russia on a 30-year natural gas supply deal. But China also intends to start negotiations on the financing and feasibility of various Crimean projects, including, building a bridge across the Kerch Strait to connect the Crimea and Russian mainland, expanding Crimean ports, constructing solar power facilities, and creating special economic zones for manufacturing. Russia will portray the investments as demonstration of solidarity with the Chinese and as international acceptance of Russia’s right to annex the Crimea.
President Putin said after his first day of negotiations with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that the two countries have agreed to coordinate foreign policy steps more closely. “We have common priorities both on the global and regional scale.” Adding that Russia and China see eye-to-eye on most issues, have lots of plans and are determined to put them into practice.
By combining China’s financial strength with Russia’s military strength, both nations can demonstrate to the world that they cannot easily contained by the United States and its allies. The initiative leverages China’s capability to make aggressive moves against the interests of nearby countries -- much like Russia is doing in Ukraine.
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Chinese and Russian navy officers take part in a joint military drill in the East China Sea, May 23. (Photo/Xinhua)
The US-Russia conflict arising from the Ukraine crisis has not ended but the United States has fallen into another dispute with China over the sovereignty issue in the South China Sea and the internet security problem. But a new cold war seems to be looming as China and Russia have teamed up to counter the United States.
The relations between Russia and China entered a rare honeymoon stage after Russian president Vladimir Putin visited China and Beijing hosted the Summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). Additionally, China and Russia have signed a natural-gas deal worth US$456 billion and have held a joint military exercise in the East China Sea.
The new cold war, focusing on economic and political interests, is different from that of the last century, which had its emphasis on military confrontation.
China and Russia's formation of a military alliance not only strengthens China's position of influence, but also highlights the emerging economies led by the BRICS nations, as US dominance declines.
At present, the United States is pressuring Russia to withdraw from Ukraine through sanctions in Europe, while simultaneously trying to block China's sea channels and rising military power by teaming up with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines in East Asia.
Washington's Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) aims to slash China's role and power of influence in economic and trade integration in the Asia-Pacific region.
At the CICA, China and Russia facilitated the establishment of a new mechanism to solve regional security issues, indicating their disagreement with the current security system led by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
Chinese president Xi Jinping's new Asia security plan expresses the basis of letting Asian countries handle their affairs themselves. Xi opposes any nations' monopolization of regional security affairs and hurting other countries' legitimate rights and interests.
The deepening setup for the new cold war will definitely slash the US influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Russia's eastward shift of power might also change China and the United States' military strategies in the East and South China seas.
Faced with changing relations among China, the United States and Russia, the United States may have to moderately adjust its strategies in the Asia-Pacific. Insisting on blocking China and Russia might increase risks of political conflict in the region and tear East Asia apart.
As for Taiwan, it is critical for to learn how to maintain the peaceful development of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to ensure its economic and political interests.
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ADVICE U.S. generals and admirals with historians and experts INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Princeton University Professor Aaron Friedberg, who has warned state and military leadership in Washington, "the United States are investing too little in its military potential that could successfully oppose the strengthening of the power of China. We need a military strategy to parry China "
Chief of naval operations, Admiral Jonathan Grinert USA found that in such a strategy is already working, but the "closed mode". In other words, the secret
Despite the fact that the whole world is in front of the new international crisis, and the United States before the attacks on "terrorist forces in Iraq," the White House and the Pentagon does not hide the fact that their biggest fears caused by the growing naval power of China - announced Defense News.
"The biggest and most important strategic challenge for the United States is increasing military and naval resources of China" - said Hel Brends American historian who teaches at Duke University.
Brends starred in the forum "ongoing strategy", which was held at the naval college in Newport. After he spoke a specialist in International Politics, Princeton University professor Aaron Friedberg, who has warned state and military leadership in Washington:
"The United States are investing too little in its military potential that could successfully oppose the strengthening of the power of China. We need a military strategy to parry China. Out of this will depend on America's ability to come to the help of its allies. "
Work of the Forum directed the chief of naval operations, Admiral Jonathan Grinert USA. It was found that participants in such a strategy is already working, but the "closed mode". In other words, a secret.
"We can not talk about it openly. This would mean that unnecessarily muddy those waters any water, "- said the admiral Grinert.
According to him, the concept of strategic air-pomorksog color, which is effective in the naval forces of the United States, it is anticipated arrival of U.S. forces at any point on the planet.
On this occasion, the Defense News said: "This strategy caused the greatest backlash in China. Beijing believes that it is directed specifically against China. "
On your-commentators unfortunately they are aware of it, and whether you are also aware Pcs oAmeri are up secretly out of sight, you're not as quick stroke Nevis from 60 minutes to neutralize any military-strategic potential along aeđist system as another chief and "fast attack" additional fixer failure.
Yes. We are not aware! They just sludge in secret, and nothing more. And when they appear in public, it's a disaster. They settled civilization lies, intrigue, fairy tales, so it's all become one huge lie and illusion. And to act? Sneaky, cowardly, shameful, but what they do not know how to be ashamed of. The reality is this, and everyone is scared. We are afraid of their suicide. For one hour, you work out the entire nuclear arsenal, since it will be able to take off 10%, will not hit nothing, nothing! The father of their intercontinental missiles is the greatest amateur of all time, Wernher von Braun, who throughout the war had failed to make effective missiles. They never flew in space or that the Russians did not help, and now they are helping.
In the first half hour, America will be razed Topol, Chinese missiles, Swern-Korean missiles.
Perhaps some of their rockets fall in Siberia, and we in Europe have problems with radiation ...
I think the Russians will not wait for the British to send these few missiles, but will be razed and England.
Then various bases throughout Europe in countries that supply the U.S. ran its own territory. E, and I'm afraid of radiation.
It is much more realistic naval war in the Pacific, when rudely provoke the Chinese, so goes the fleet. There may be a big battle, but China's numbers will easily prevail.
Much more realistic is that the U.S. fleet is completely frozen, as recently in the Black Sea, and the Chinese are decimated. Because the Chinese have a much better developers. Just like the Russians. E, then the war will continue to lead in the U.S. mainland ... I'd love to see it.
And another thing, my friend. You are not a Serb, but a stranger, ordinary web-agent-provocateur.
Your message, it is a reflection of how the West rules the world. Fear, lies, and manipulation. But the internet has turned against you, and do not serve you anymore, and you'll eventually shut it down.
The only way that Western civilization use reasonableness and goodness rest of the world, Slovenian, Chinese and Muslim, tuck tail, shove their hatred toward others in his ass, quiet, sleeps intrigue, and the mainland, the mainland, until eventually it dies completely, by itself . Because evil always end POJEDE itself.
It seems that you are not aware of what is happening at this moment in the Russian army ... now they already ispajuju supersonic missile with a vest-with a system that does not goes around talking about systems like S-400, S-500, aviation systems ... so the usa superfast attack will come on hard ... NIJ RUS fool remember that ... a 'ageis' hehe he tja system to work trebaosi read priej parr googlaj week or so you'll see .. what he has done Flights aged 30 godinanaravno .. Russian Su-24 ... so on and baba on cakes .. ajd healthy now ...
That are not slaughtered 25 years ago I would have been, this modern terms, neutral, but since it did not so I wish them the Chinese and separation from the earth and the sky and the water.
There is one master of life and death. Now people have taken the role of the Gods, full of imagination on their knowledge and discoveries, not realizing that nothing can not be detected, if it does not already exist. It depends on just who and when they whispered what to "discover". The use of nuclear weapons, means the end of human civilization. The world is in the hands of a Satanist and an idiot .... Praise Jesus Christ! ! !
Answers
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
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“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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China Begins Direct Sales Of Fruit & Vegetables To Russia
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/12/2014 11:04 -0400
Despite the ongoing mainstream media meme that Russia is becoming 'isolated' from the rest of the world thanks to Western sanctions, it appears they have found a few new 'old' friends to become un-isolated with. On the heels of Russia's food-import-ban sanctions last week, Russian and Chinese officials have announced an agreement that China will start selling fruit and vegetables directly to Russia via a special logistics center in Russia's far east. Notably, this week saw Russia's GDP beat consensus expectations, Ruble rally, and stocks jump as German confidence plunged - can you say blowback? As RT reports,
China will start selling fruit and vegetables directly to Russia, and Baorong company plans to set up a special logistics center in Dongning on the border with Russia’s Far East to do it.
The 70,000 square meter wholesale market and 30,000 square meter warehouse, fitted out with refrigerators and other equipment, will be in a special cross-border customs zone, ITAR-TASS cites the head of the Association of Applied Economy of the Heilongjiang Province Zhang Chunjiao.
“Direct export of fruit and vegetables to Russia will be organized from it," she said.
It will cost $9.7 million to construct. Customs clearance times will be reduced, and there will be no need to double-check the cargo because of video surveillance in the warehouse.
A Chinese company Dili, also intends to create a similar cross-border trade zone by the end of 2014, Zhang Chunjiao added.
The announcement comes after Russia introduced a 1-year ban on imports of some agricultural products from the EU, US, Australia, Canada, Australia and Norway last week. If it lasts, it could cost European Union members $16 billion, Vygaudas Usackas, the EU ambassador to Russia, estimated.
* * * We assume payment for these imports will be in Rubles or Renminbi... not US Dollars.
* * *
As we noted last week, there is good reason why Europe is being battered by these new sanctions; but who is hit hardest?
EU member states have already complained their economies would be hit hard, with Germany and Poland losing the most trade with Russia, and the Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – seeing their shares of GDP falling even sharper.
For the US the effect will be very limited, as agricultural exports to Russia are about one tenth of one percent of total US gross domestic product of about $144 billion, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
US food exports to Russia in 2013 amounted to less than 1 percent of the country’s total agricultural exports, the US Department of Agriculture said to RIA Novosti. Conversely, Russian exports to the US and European markets are 13 percent of its GDP. In 2013, the US exported $1.3 billion of food goods to Russia, about a quarter of which were poultry products.
The European Union has no plans to ask a number of states, in particular China, to refrain from replacing banned European food products in the Russian market, a source close to EU leadership told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
“There are no concrete plans,” the official said, answering a question on whether the EU will ask China and some other countries not to replace banned agricultural and food products from Europe with their own goods in the Russian market.
Media reports earlier suggested that the European Union planned to convince Brazil, Chile and other Latin American states not to export their food products to Russia. It was said that EU expects these countries not to take advantage of the embargo on European products.
* * *
So it seems, US sanctions sparked European blowback... how long before Washington finds itself alone again.
* * *
More un-isolation?
*PUTIN SAYS EGYPT READY TO BOOST FURTHER FOOD EXPORTS TO RUSSIA
*EGYPT STUDIES FREE TRADE ZONE W/ RUSSIA-LED CUSTOMS UNION:PUTIN
*RUSSIA SEEKS TO DOUBLE EGYPTIAN FOOD IMPORTS, FEDOROV SAYS
*RUSSIA'S FEDOROV SAYS EGYPT SUPPLIED $460M IN FOOD IN 1H
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Report lists 40 cases of ‘brinkmanship’ in past eight months, including near-collision between Russian spy plane and passenger jet
Russian military jets fly in formation above the Kremlin. The European Leadership Network’s report comes after a warning from Mikhail Gorbachev that the world is ‘on the brink of a new cold war’. Photograph: Tatyana Makeyeva / Reuters/Reuters Ewen MacAskill, defence and security correspondent
Close military encounters between Russia and the west have jumped to cold war levels, with 40 dangerous or sensitive incidents recorded in the past eight months alone, according to a report published on Monday.
The report, Dangerous Brinkmanship by the European Leadership Network, logs a series of “highly disturbing” incidents since the Ukrainian crisis began earlier this year, including an alarming near-collision between a Russian reconnaissance plane and a passenger plane taking off from Denmark in March with 132 passengers on board.
What made the incident especially dangerous was that the Russian plane did not have on its transponders, the usual method of signalling its presence to other aircraft.
The encounters have taken place mainly around the Baltic Sea but also in the Black Sea and along the US and Canadian borders.
“We believe the nearly 40 incidents logged are a very serious development, not necessarily because they indicate a desire on the part of Russia to start a war but because they show a dangerous game of brinkmanship is being played, with the potential for unintended escalation in what is now the most serious security crisis in Europe since the cold war,” say the report’s authors Thomas Frear, Lukasz Kulesa and Ian Kearns.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Russian and Nato forces have routinely tested one another’s air defences, with both sending planes close to international borders to see how fast the other responds.
But this year has seen not only a surge in such encounters but limits being pushed to new, more risky levels.
The US, Britain and other Nato allies accuse Russia of ramping up military action, but Moscow places the blame on the US and its European allies, accusing them of provoking the crisis in the Ukraine and through the imposition of sanctions on Russia. Gorbachev, normally a critic of Vladimir Putin, took the unusual step of siding with the Russian leader and called for new mechanisms for lowering tensions.
Some anti-war activists in the US and the west argue that Nato is hyping up encounters and risking all-out war.
The report authors urge the Russian leadership to “urgently re-evaluate the costs and risks of continuing its more assertive military posture”. They also call on all sides to exercise military and political restraint and improve military-to-military communication and transparency.
Nato logged up to late October more than 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft, three times more than last year.
These and other incidents add up to a highly disturbing picture of violations of national airspace, emergency scrambles, narrowly avoided mid-air collisions, close encounters at sea, and other dangerous actions happening on a regular basis over a very wide geographical area, the report says.
Among high-risk incidents it lists are: the abduction by Russia of an Estonian intelligence agent in September: a mock Russian bombing raid on a heavily populated Danish island; simulated cruise missile attacks by Russian bombers on the US and Canada; Canadian warships locking radar on approaching Russian aircraft in the Black Sea; and a US plane making unauthorised entry into Swedish airspace after being chased by Russian planes.
Estonian defence minister Sven Mikser said last week that while he did not see outright military conflict with Russia as likely, Russia had returned to cold war ways by stepping up incursions.
According to Lithuania’s defence ministry, Nato fighter jets around the Baltic states had been scrambled 86 times by mid-October, nearly twice as many as the whole of last year. Estonia has reported six breaches of its airspace by Russian aircraft this year, up from two in all of 2013. Latvia says it has sighted more than 40 Russian military vessels near its waters.
British general Sir John McColl, former deputy supreme allied commander in Europe, said the potential for miscalculation or escalation could be a matter not of if but when. While the recent increases in incidents were central high-level decisions, the physical execution of policy was delegated down.
“Junior commanders with highly capable equipment under their control will be interpreting broad direction using their initiative as circumstances develop in front of them. The potential for error and escalation is clear, and extremely dangerous; more a matter of when rather than if,” McColl said.
Former British defence secretary Des Browne shared the concern, singling out the near collision between the passenger plane and the warplane as well as the abduction of the Estonian, which he described as “a Russian incursion into Nato territory which had it got out of hand, could have had incalculable consequences”.
Kearns, who has been engaged with senior British foreign and defence policy makers for two decades, said: “We badly also need to negotiate a new crisis management arrangement with Russia to avoid a major unintentional escalation. The Chinese and Japanese have negotiated just such an arrangement in the East China Sea in the last few days. That is what we now need in Europe.’
China and Japan reached agreement on Friday on just such mechanisms in the East China Sea after similar tension.
The two have been in dispute over tiny unpopulated islands controlled by Japan but claimed by Beijing and known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan.
Three close encounters
Near mid-air collision with passenger plane On 3 March this year, an SAS passenger plane taking off from Copenhagen with 132 passengers bound for Rome had a close encounter with a Russian reconnaissance plane which did not transmit its position. A collision was only avoided because of good visibility and the alertness of the SAS pilots, according to the report. The incident, which happened 50 miles south-east of Malmo, in Sweden, was before the shooting down of the MH17 passenger plane over Ukraine. Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists were blamed for the July missile attack.
Simulated cruise missile attacks on North America In early September this year, Russian strategic bombers in the Labrador Sea near Canada practised cruise missile strikes. The Russian aircraft stayed out of Canada’s airspace but it was still a provocative move in light of the Nato summit at the time, according to the report. Cruise missiles launched from the Labrador Sea would have Ottawa, New York, Washington, Chicago and America’s Norfolk naval base in range.
Black Sea encounter On 7 September, the Canadian frigate Toronto was buzzed by a Russian aircraft in the Black Sea with the plane coming within 300 metres. The Toronto locked its radar on the Russian plane but took no further action as the Russian plane was not armed. The incident coincided with larger Russian larger naval combat training activities near Sevastopol. “Such aggressive behaviour, if repeated by an armed aircraft, could have resulted in the ship commander targeting the aircraft in an act of self-defence,” the report says.
When Vladimir Putin met China’s president Xi Jinping on Sunday, a memorandum of understanding for a second massive gas supply deal caught most of the attention.
For the Russian president, the deal may be less appealing for its commercial benefits than its ability to advance a larger strategic goal of cementing ties with its eastern neighbour.
According to Russian officials and security analysts, Moscow’s worst stand-off with the west since the end of the cold war has convinced Mr Putin’s government that it must moor its security interests to China because the Euro-Atlantic security architecture is broken beyond repair.
“Cooperation between Russia and China is extremely important to keep the peace in the framework of international law, making it more stable,” Mr Putin told his Chinese counterpart, just two weeks after he accused the US of destabilising the world by frequently violating international law.
Russia’s updated military doctrine is expected to target Nato and the US more clearly as the Ukraine crisis has frayed Moscow’s relations with the western alliance.
The current doctrine only lists Nato expansion, foreign troop deployments in neighbouring states, destabilisation in certain countries and deployment of missile defence systems as “external military dangers”.
People familiar with the document said Nato and the US would be openly designated as threats or adversaries in the document’s new version, due to be published next month.
Russian diplomats and analysts also said Moscow hoped to build the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan in 1996, into a more meaningful security alliance.
In a speech last month that left western observers bewildered for its rabid anti-Americanism and its lack of proposals for a positive agenda, Mr Putin bemoaned what he described as the destruction of the mechanisms that used to govern international security affairs.
“Sadly, there is no guarantee and no certainty that the current system of global and regional security is able to protect us from upheavals. This system has become seriously weakened, fragmented and deformed,” Mr Putin said.
He accused the US of creating a world order in which brute force could become the only means for resolving conflicts.
According to people involved in drafting Mr Putin’s speech, it initially contained a reference to “Helsinki II” – the idea that Russia, the US and Europe should try to work out a new framework governing their security relations similar to the 1975 Helsinki Accords. A proposal by then-president Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 for a new version of the agreement credited with lowering tension during the cold war failed to get off the ground because western countries saw it as an attempt to undermine Nato.
“The concept had been prepared for Putin back then, but they have lost confidence that this could work now, so it was dropped from Putin’s speech last month,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, a Moscow think-tank. “Helsinki was about fixed spheres of influence, and it worked as long as there was balance of power and deterrence. That spirit is gone now.”
Another longstanding piece of the European security architecture is the Nato Russia Act, in which Nato pledged not to create permanent bases on Russia’s borders.
But the tension over the Ukraine crisis has fuelled Russian fears that this promise is being undermined.
In addition, even though Nato has little intention of welcoming Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, member countries see it as politically impossible to openly rule out their membership in order to keep them as buffers between the western alliance and Russia.
Mr Putin is under no illusion that things will get any easier. The next US president is almost certain to be more hawkish towards Russia than Barack Obama, who entered the White House seeking a hopeful reset of relations.
“This forces Russia to head in a different direction – towards China and Iran, out of the western international system,” says Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group risk consultancy. “That is not in the west’s interest. They are becoming what you could call a floater state – something like an angry version of India.”
Moscow is already giving Nato a taste of what that means. The Russian air force has been probing the air space of Nato members with increasing frequency and range over the past two years, repeatedly forcing European militaries from Norway to Turkey scramble fighters.
Moreover, the Baltic states have been rattled by Russia’s abduction of an Estonian intelligence agent from Estonian territory and the seizure of a Lithuanian fishing vessel in international waters in September.
Defence analysts believe that with such moves, which fall short of full-scale armed conflict, Mr Putin is probing Nato’s commitment to collective defence. If a Nato member invoked Article 5, under which the alliance pledges to help defend any member that comes under an armed attack, and the alliance failed to respond, Moscow would succeed in hollowing out Nato, said Jonathan Eyal, Director of International Studies at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Securities Studies in London.
In the meantime, Mr Putin is trying to strengthen rival structures with the help of China, as he did this week. India, Pakistan and Mongolia are set to formally join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at a summit in Russia next year.
“That will make it a significant new force in the international security system,” said Mr Lukyanov.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
When Vladimir Putin met China’s president Xi Jinping, a memorandum of understanding for a second massive gas supply deal caught most of the attention.
For the Russian president, the deal may be less appealing for its commercial benefits than its ability to advance the larger goal of cementing ties with its eastern neighbour.
According to Russian officials and security analysts, Moscow’s worst stand-off with the west since the end of the cold war has convinced Mr Putin’s government that it must moor its security interests to China because the Euro-Atlantic security architecture is broken beyond repair.
“Co-operation between Russia and China is extremely important to keep the peace in the framework of international law, making it more stable,” Mr Putin told his Chinese counterpart, just two weeks after he accused the US of destabilising the world by frequently violating international law.
Russia’s updated military doctrine is expected to target NATO and the US more clearly as the Ukraine crisis has frayed Moscow’s relations with the western alliance. The current doctrine lists only NATO expansion, foreign troop deployments in neighbouring states, destabilisation in certain countries and deployment of missile defence systems as “external military dangers”.
People familiar with the document said NATO and the US would be openly designated as threats or adversaries in the document’s new version, due to be published next month.
Russian diplomats and analysts also said Moscow hoped to build the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan in 1996, into a more meaningful security alliance.
In a speech last month that left western observers bewildered for its rabid anti-Americanism and its lack of proposals for a positive agenda, Mr Putin bemoaned what he described as the destruction of the mechanisms that used to govern international security affairs.
“Sadly, there is no guarantee and no certainty that the current system of global and regional security is able to protect us from upheavals. This system has become seriously weakened, fragmented and deformed,” Mr Putin said. He accused the US of creating a world order in which brute force could become the only means for resolving conflicts.
According to people involved in drafting Mr Putin’s speech, it initially contained a reference to “Helsinki II” – the idea that Russia, the US and Europe should try to work out a new framework governing their security relations similar to the 1975 Helsinki Accords. A proposal by then-president Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 for a new version of the agreement credited with lowering tension during the cold war failed to get off the ground because western countries saw it as a bid to undermine NATO.
“The concept had been prepared for Putin back then, but they have lost confidence that this could work now, so it was dropped from Putin’s speech last month,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, a Moscow think-tank. “Helsinki was about fixed spheres of influence, and it worked as long as there was balance of power and deterrence. That spirit is gone now.”
Another longstanding piece of the European security architecture is the NATO Russia Act, in which NATO pledged not to create permanent bases on Russia’s borders.
But the tension over the Ukraine crisis has fuelled Russian fears that this promise is being undermined.
In addition, even though NATO has little intention of welcoming Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, member countries see it as politically impossible to openly rule out their membership in order to keep them as buffers between the western alliance and Russia.
Mr Putin is under no illusion that things will get any easier. The next US president is almost certain to be more hawkish towards Russia than Barack Obama, who entered the White House seeking a hopeful reset of relations.
“This forces Russia to head in a different direction – towards China and Iran, out of the western international system,” says Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group risk consultancy.
Moscow is already giving Nato a taste of what that means. The Russian air force has been probing the air space of NATO members with increasing frequency and range over the past two years, repeatedly forcing European militaries from Norway to Turkey scramble fighters.
China and Russia have vowed to strengthen bilateral military co-operation and hold joint naval exercises to counter US influence in the Asia-Pacific region as a growing chorus of voices warns of a looming “new cold war”.
During a visit to Beijing where he met his Chinese counterpart and Premier Li Keqiang, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said the two sides “expressed our concern with the US attempts to reinforce its military political influence in the Asia-Pacific region”, Chinese and Russian state media reported.
“Our co-operation in the military spheres has great potential and the Russian side is ready to develop it across the broadest possible spectrum of areas,” Mr Shoigu added. “We see the formation of a collective regional security system as the primary objective of our joint efforts.”
The Russian delegation also drew a parallel between the current pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong and the so-called “colour revolutions” in former Soviet states, including Ukraine, which China and Russia blame on instigation from the US and its allies.
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s deputy defence minister, even seemed to suggest Moscow would be willing to help Beijing tackle the peaceful protests in Hong Kong.
“We have taken note of the events that recently took place in Hong Kong and the two ministers acknowledged that not a single country can feel insured against colour revolutions,” Mr Antonov said, according to Russian state media. “We believe that Russia and China should work together to oppose this new challenge to our states’ security.”
The two sides agreed to hold joint naval exercises, their fourth in recent years, in the Mediterranean next spring, to be followed by further exercises in the Pacific.
As fighting intensifies in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s neighbours fret over Moscow’s rising belligerence, Beijing has described Sino-Russian relations as the best they have ever been.
The current situation in Europe prompted former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to warn last week that the world was on the brink of a new cold war, a sentiment echoed by Belarusian officials on Tuesday.
Facing the prospect of fresh sanctions from the west, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to move closer to China to demonstrate he has economic and strategic options and is not completely isolated on the global stage.
China’s authoritarian leaders have welcomed the overtures as they also make more strident territorial claims in the East and South China Seas and seek to face down smaller neighbours and Japan, their second world war enemy.
But both sides remain wary of getting too close and have trouble overcoming a long history of mutual mistrust and contempt, according to Chinese and western experts who monitor the relationship.
For all the talk of closer military ties and joint exercises, Russia has so far refused to sell its most advanced military technology, including jet engines and fighter aircraft, to China.
Beijing has sought to balance closer ties to Moscow with greater co-operation with the US and its allies, while Mr Putin has sought to boost relations with Tokyo, much to China’s dismay.
Even as the Russian defence minister was meeting his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan on Tuesday, a top Chinese Communist party official was visiting Finland, which is on high alert for any sign of Russian encroachment.
At the same time, a top-level delegation from North Korea met Mr Putin in the Kremlin amid speculation the country’s leader Kim Jong Un would make a first overseas visit as leader to Russia, rather than to China, its traditional ally.
Chinese officials say ties between Pyongyang and Beijing have reached an all-time low since Mr Kim took over the hermit kingdom and particularly since he executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was seen as China’s key contact in the country.
During the defence minister’s visit, Russia’s federal space agency also discussed closer co-operation with China, which is interested in building Russian rocket engines and joining manned space exploration, remote sensing and navigation satellite projects, according to Russian state media.
Sino-Russian postwar relations: from rocky to robust
1950 – Mao Zedong travels to Moscow to sign a Treaty of Friendship, which consists of a $300m loan to help rebuild the newly-born but war-ravaged People’s Republic of China, and a military alliance against Japanese aggression
1960 – After several years of tensions, in part down to divergences in Marxist ideology, relations collapse. This Sino-Soviet split come to be seen as one of the key events in the Cold War
1969 – Tensions flare in an undeclared seven-month-long border conflict that brings the PRC and Soviet Union to the brink of war
1972 – The visit to China by President Richard Nixon results in the first meeting between US and Chinese leaders for 25 years. The revival in political and trade ties moves China closer to the west, and away from Moscow
1980s – After a prolonged freeze, Soviet and Chinese leaders make a series of conciliatory gestures aimed at restoring political relations
1991 – Diplomatic relations between Beijing and Moscow dramatically improve following the collapse of the Soviet Union
1996 - China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan form the foundations of a political, economic and military organisation, later renamed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation when Uzbekistan joins in 2001
2010 – China and Russia announce they will use their own national currencies for bilateral trade rather than the US dollar. Separately, a 1,000km crude oil pipeline is completed – the first between Russia and China
2014 – Russia‘s Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing and sign a $400bn gas deal. Weeks later the pair pledge to hold joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea and work towards stronger military co-operation
Rear Adm. Du Xiping (front right), deputy commander of China’s Beihai Fleet, shakes hands with Capt. 1st Rank Sergei Yuriyevich Zhuga of Russia’s Pacific Fleet during a welcome ceremony at a naval base in Qingdao, in east China’s Shandong Province, on April 21, 2012
Russia and China have committed to a pair of 2015 naval exercises as a sign of growing military cooperation between the two countries, Russia’s minister of defense said this week.
“We plan to conduct a regular joint naval exercise in the Mediterranean next spring,” said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to the Russian TASS news agency. “Another joint naval drill is planned in the Pacific.”
The announcement from Shoigu follows a Beijing meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan in which the two countries pledged greater military-to-military cooperation against the backdrop of the so-called U.S. rebalance to the Pacific.
“We believe that the main goal of pooling our effort is to shape a collective regional security system,” Shoigu said.
“We also expressed concern over U.S. attempts to strengthen its military and political clout in the [Asia-Pacific Region].”
Shoigu did not specify the nature of the exercises but Russia and China completed a bilateral exercise in May.
Joint Sea Exercise 2014 was the third between the Russian Navy and People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) since 2011 and featured 14 surface ships, two submarines, nine fixed wing aircraft as well as helicopters and special operation forces (SOF), state controlled Xinhua news service wrote in May.
The new exercises are part of a trend that, “has visibly expanded and gained a systemic character,” Shoigu said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin indicated the same earlier this year.
“It would be no exaggeration if I said that the cooperation between our two countries is at its highest level in history,” he said in May.
Russia has stepped up its surface presence in Asia in the last few months.
Earlier in October, the Black Sea flagship — guided missile cruiser Moscow (or Moskva) — conducted rare live fire drills in the South China Sea.
For its part, China has also ventured further abroad.
In late October, Chinese and Iranian military leaders pledged greater cooperation following limited bilateral naval exercises in September.
Shoigu said Russian deepening military ties with China was essential for regional security.
“Amid a highly volatile world situation, it becomes particularly important to strengthen reliable good-neighborly relations between our countries,” Shoigu said.
“This is not only an important factor for security of states but also a contribution to peace and stability on the Eurasian continent and beyond.”
What Robert Kaplan so smartly dubbed “Asia’s Cauldron [4]”— the South China Sea— might be set to boil once again. But the real kicker is who might be turning the switch to “high” on that virtual stove: none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Events thousands of miles away in Ukraine could set off a chain reaction that could see China become the undisputed ruler of this large body of water thanks to a large infusion of Russian weapons and technology— if the West starts arming Ukraine [5].
But before we get to all the juicy details of how China could become “master and commander” of the South China Sea thanks to Russian assistance, lets take a much needed survey of the latest drama show in this troubled body of water. Tensions are rising in the Asia-Pacific as China continues to change facts on the ground (“in the water” might be a better term), continuing work on several massive island reclamation projects that many analysts feel will create much larger islands housing airfields, ports, radar stations and maybe even anti-ship missile batteries. The motivation is quite obvious— Beijing would likely become the sovereign master of the South China Sea if these islands were used for the natural purpose of claiming sovereignty. Nothing says “indisputable sovereignty [6]” by doing the things a sovereign does, like patrolling your supposed territory and enforcing your laws in that territory. Bases in the South China Sea could make that all too infamous nine or ten-dash line more than just big marks on a map somewhere in Beijing. They could make it a reality.
New South China Bases + A2/AD = A Nightmare for America and Its Allies
When it comes to Chinese military capabilities, much has been made over the last several years of the PRC’s growing ability to deny a technological advanced adversary (think the United States and/or Japan) the capability to intervene in various possible engagements near its borders (Taiwan and/or the East and South China Seas). Over the next several years, such capabilities are likely to evolve and improve thanks to technological innovations. Combining likely Chinese technological advances like longer range and more accurate cruise missiles, plus new bases in reclaimed islands in the South China Sea, is nothing short of a nightmare for U.S. and allied planners who are doing all they can to ensure access to vital parts of the Asia-Pacific.
Dubbed A2/AD by most Western military specialists, the PRC is slowly creating the conditions in which U.S., Japanese or other allied forces would suffer heavy losses if a conflict ever occurred in the out to the first island chain, and in the future, all the way to the second island chain. Across multiple domains of possible engagement (land, sea, air, cyber and space), Chinese forces have pursued a robust program to develop a set of unique weapon systems that take advantage of specific weaknesses in perceived U.S. and allied capabilities. While such capabilities are already robust enough that Washington and its allies are making plans to negate the impact of such a strategy (see the Air-Sea Battle/JAM-GCC concept debate [7]), something widely missed in many open-source reviews of the problem is that Beijing is already at work on acquiring the next generation of A2/AD weapon platforms, along with developing matching tactics and strategies.
China, over the last several years, has developed 5th-generation fighter prototypes, increasingly sophisticated anti-ship ballistic missiles and longer-range land and sea attack cruise-missile platforms. Such systems are not easy to produce for any nation. If Beijing were to find a willing partner, one who might already have such technology, it could provide the quantum leap needed to field such highly advanced A2/AD weapons platforms years ahead of when domestic producers could do so on their own. Russia, looking for revenge over the crisis in Ukraine, could provide such assistance.
How Russia Could Help China: Weapons and Technology
Imagine this scenario: The West decides that it is time to arm Ukraine. Russia decides it needs to strike back— and not just in Europe. President Putin pulls out his map of the globe and looks for a place where Russian power would best stick it to the United States. His eyes light up on the one area that could not only strengthen ties with a potential partner but do real damage to America’s efforts to “pivot” to that part of the world: the South China Sea.
A2/AD Heads to the Sky: Here Comes the Russian SU-35
China is attempting to enhance its anti-access capabilities in the air domain with the much-rumored purchase of the SU-35 from Russia, a purchase that could become formalized if the West arms Ukraine.
With greater range than the current PLAAF SU-27/J-11, the SU-35 would give China the ability to deploy advanced fighter jets for longer periods of time in the East and South China Seas, improve the effectiveness of patrols in the recently declared East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and possibly help Beijing create an ADIZ in the South China Sea. The aircraft would likely be superior to most fighters in Asia (except the F-22 or later F-35) and fill the gap until presumably domestic 5th-generation stealth airframes come online. If China armed the plane with advanced anti-ship weapons and based them in newly created airfields on Johnson or Fiery Reef, a new and potent anti-access weapon would emerge, with solid capabilities to push allied forces back to safer waters.
A2/AD 2.0 in the Sea: Subs and Sonar:
On the high seas, and thanks again to possible collaboration with Russia, China could seek to enhance its capabilities under the waves with possible new submarine purchases. This has been tied to press reports surrounding a possible SU-35 sale over the last several years. While reports do vary on the seriousness of negotiations and have been confirmed and denied several times, we again get a sense of Chinese trends in attempts to strengthen its A2/AD capabilities with Russian help.
A fresh infusion of new sub technology would be of vital importance to China not only for the ability to deploy undersea vessels with greater capabilities, but also because Beijing could potentially reverse engineer new technologies from these subs. This would likely include Russian AIP engines, better quieting technologies and state of the art anti-ship weapons sometimes sold with each sub.
The PRC also seems interested in improving its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) technology--a traditional weakness for Beijing. In an article for Proceedings [8] magazine last year, TNI contributor Lyle Goldstein and Shannon Knight explore recent Chinese works that suggest Beijing “has deployed fixed ocean-floor acoustic arrays off its coasts, presumably with the intent to monitor foreign submarine activities in the near seas.” Citing multiple essays in Chinese sourced materials, their research seems to all but confirm Beijing’s foray into this important area of military technology.
While there has been no specific mention of a submarine deal between Russia and China, Moscow certainly has the experience to help Beijing in this regard. Considering that U.S. efforts to keep access to possibly contested spaces by Chinese A2/AD is largely dependent on U.S. submarines staying stealth, such a collaboration in this area could bolster Chinese A2/AD plans considerably.
Why Russia Might Want to Think Twice: The SU-27 Deal
While the Ukraine crisis certainly would be a powerful catalyst for Sino-Russo defense technology collaboration, such transfers have happened in the past— with Moscow paying a heavy price. Russia would certainly be wise to review the recent past, which offers clues on why a sale to China could be challenging over the long-term.
The last major aircraft deal between Moscow and Beijing in the 1990s involved the still much sought after 4th generation SU-27 Flanker. At the time, Russia hadn't sold technologically advanced military hardware to Beijing since the Sino-Soviet split, when a rise in tensions sparked border clashes. When the USSR collapsed at the end of 1991, the Russian arms industry was struggling to stay above water. Russia was overflowing with weaponry that could help the Chinese jump multiple generations in military technology, so a partnership appeared to make sense.
For China, gaining access to state-of-the art military technology was critical and by 1991 Beijing considered such a quest of top importance. Chinese strategists were stunned at the speed at which the United States was able to overwhelm Iraqi armed forces in the First Gulf War. Chinese military planners realized that much of their weaponry was obsolete in the face of precision-guided munitions, stealth bombers and fighter aircraft all guided by advanced command and control systems. Russian technology— while not as advanced as America's— provided a much-needed boost toward modernization.
In 1991, Moscow sold Beijing a batch of twenty-four SU-27’s [9] for approximately $1 billion. In 1995, China purchased another twenty-four Su-27s from Russia, which were delivered in 1996. In the same year, China and Russia deepened their partnership when Beijing paid about $2.5 billion for a license to manufacture an additional 200 or so SU-27s at the Shenyang Aircraft Company. The contract had an important provision— the Chinese version of the SU-27, which included imported Russian avionics, radar and engines, couldn't be exported. Russia was concerned China would reverse engineer or learn enough about the SU-27 that they could some day sell it to third parties, costing Russia potentially billions of dollars in fighter jet sales.
Unfortunately for Russia, the deal ended up being nothing short of a disaster. After building 100 or so jets, China canceled the contract [10] in 2004. Beijing said the planes no longer met its specifications. Three years later, China completely cast the agreement aside when it developed a new fighter aircraft—the J-11. The plane looked like an exact copy of the Su-27. China denies that it copied the SU-27, explaining that the plane uses mostly indigenous parts and that it developed superior domestic avionics and radar equipment.
Parting Thoughts:
While debate heats up in Washington on ways to impose costs on Russia for its actions in Ukraine, Moscow does have multiple pathways to strike back if the West arms Ukraine. Indeed, the above is just one of many possibilities. Moscow could pursue a course of action like I have described with China, giving them arms and technology that would exacerbate trend lines in the South China and other areas of contention for years to come.
However, Russia has many other ways it could create trouble for the West; for example, in the Iran nuclear talks or by cozying up to other nations on the outs with the West, like North Korea, Venezuela, and various others.
And Russia of course has the ability to raise the stakes in Ukraine dramatically by giving the separatists even more advanced weapons to counter possible Western arms.
While Russia might not be a superpower anymore, it does have the power to create lots of havoc for the United States and its allies all over the world. Such moves would thensee the West again look to strike back at Moscow, creating a dangerous dynamic that would see the conditions ripe for a new Cold War that is in no ones national interest. This is all the more reason for all parties concerned when it comes to Ukraine to find a political settlement to the crisis.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Xi Jinping wants to work with Russia Next month, Western leaders will be conspicuously absent from President Vladimir Putin's military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in the Second World War.
President Barack Obama and EU leaders are staying away from the Red Square commemoration to express their outrage at Russia's role in Ukraine.
Alongside a selection of autocrats including Kim Jong-un of North Korea and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, President Xi Jinping of China will be the guest of honour.
Until recently, President Putin was promoting a Eurasian vision, a union which would run "from Dublin to Vladivostok".
But as the Ukraine crisis has deepened and the year-old US-led sanctions against Russia bite, China is now the only major economy outside the sanctions regime and Russia and China are closer than at any time in half a century.
Russia's ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov, said: "President Putin and President Xi met five times last year. They will meet at least as many times this year. This shows the importance of the political dialogue."
President Xi and President Putin describe themselves as "good friends".
Both like to present themselves as strong national leaders who will rebuild past glory.
Long-standing enemies
But the ambassador and I were talking in the same embassy greeting room where Chairman Mao met the leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khruschev in 1959, and the ambassador acknowledged that despite the smiles and warm language on that occasion, a precipitous decline in relations was just round the corner, one which left Moscow and Beijing mortal enemies for the best part of two decades.
Chairman Mao oversaw a decline in relations with the Soviet Union
Nikita Khruschev viewed China as an enemy Chairman Mao even ordered the residents of the Chinese capital to dig air raid shelters and an underground city in preparation for attack.
But nowadays Beijing's foreign policy puts pragmatism above ideology.
Its diplomats are well practised at exploiting differences between Moscow and Washington to China's advantage, and the Ukraine crisis has offered a valuable opportunity.
This is not to say that Ukraine hasn't presented Beijing with challenges.
China claims its central foreign policy principles are sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference.
If these principles were driving Chinese policy, it might have been expected to condemn Russian actions in Ukraine. Chinese-Russian relations
1961: China formally denounces the Soviet version of communism 1969: Border war between the two nations 1976: Tensions begin to ease following the death of Mao Zedong 1992: Russian President Boris Yeltsin visits China 1998: Joint communique pledging to build an "equal and reliable partnership" 2001: Treaty signed setting out a 20-year strategy for working together 2009: Over 40 contracts worth roughly $3bn agreed between the two countries 2010: Completion of first pipeline built between China and Russia But a more important tenet still is an unspoken one, not to criticise friends in public.
Between Ukraine and Russia, Beijing refused to take sides.
This month, Russian media reported the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying sanctions make the Ukraine situation worse: "China has stuck to an objective and unbiased position on the Ukrainian crisis.
"From the beginning we have insisted that settlement should be carried out exclusively by political means."
Chinese advantages
In fact, the Ukraine crisis has substantially advanced Chinese national interest.
As it lost friends in European capitals, Moscow has urgently needed markets and friends in the East, and last May it signed a 30-year gas deal worth $400bn (£266bn) with fuel-hungry China.
The Power of Siberia project, the largest in the world, had been stuck in negotiation for 10 years due to arguments over price.
Russia's diplomatic isolation made the difference and most analysts concluded that China had got a good bargain.
China has not criticised Russia over the unrest in Ukraine Again in November last year, the two sides signed a framework agreement on a second gas pipeline, this time from western Siberia to north-west China.
As important, the Ukraine crisis advances China's strategic agenda.
Along with the multiple unfolding emergencies in the Middle East, it helps distract the US from a coherent focus on East Asia, and by driving Moscow into a firmer Chinese embrace, it secures Beijing's back so that it can give its full attention to frustrating US leadership in the Asia Pacific.
Put simply, China needs Russia to provide natural resources and a stable strategic hinterland, and Russia is now signed up to that project.
Dimitri Trenin, of the Carnegie Moscow Centre, says this is a triangle in which Beijing rather than Washington is in the commanding position: "The US needs to realise that it's most serious competitor in the 21st century can now rely more than ever on the resources and support of its 20th century adversary.
"We're talking about a new Eurasia emerging with China very much the centre of it - and Chinese-led projects are changing the face of Eurasia more than anything since the days of Genghis Khan."
Banking initiative
One of those projects is the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The AIIB is still on the drawing board and hasn't issued a single loan, but it has already delivered a sharp diplomatic blow to the United States.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank agreement was signed in October by 21 countries, including China Ignoring Washington's opposition, many US friends applied to become founder members.
The shock was almost as great in Beijing as it was in Washington.
Chinese negotiators had never imagined old US allies like the UK and Australia falling into their arms.
As that was so easy, China's strategic planners will now be thinking of other ways to test American leadership in the region.
They don't have to look far. In January's State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to help him secure a trade agreement for Asia:
"China wants to write the rules for the world's fastest-growing region. That would put our workers and our businesses at a disadvantage. Why would we let that happen? We should write those rules."
Indeed President Obama is trying to write those rules as part of his strategic foreign policy initiative, the "pivot to Asia".
President Obama made closer relations with Asia a key priority of his first term His administration is promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which would cover a dozen countries.
China is not included and Beijing sees the TPP as an attempt at economic containment.
Unsurprisingly, it is working on a rival trade deal and to prepare the ground, it has carefully toned down some of the confrontational tactics and rhetoric which alarmed neighbours around the East and South China Sea this time last year.
President Xi has moved from strategic military initiatives to strategic economic ones, rolling out a vision for a Silk Road Economic Belt which promises multi-billion dollar loans to build energy and transport infrastructure for Central Asia, and a parallel Maritime Silk Route which will do the same for South East Asia.
This week the Chinese president has been out on a charm offensive, in Pakistan promoting the first vision and in Indonesia pushing the second.
Meanwhile President Obama's TPP project is bogged down in Washington's congressional politics.
As time runs out for the Obama administration and the focus shifts towards a presidential election, regional allies worry that the US is distracted, disengaged and even dysfunctional in face of the challenge from China.
But the US seems relaxed about the evolving China-Russia relationship, viewing the marriage of Russian bear and Chinese dragon as a marriage of convenience where claws will soon be unsheathed by one side or the other.
President Obama said (to the Economist) last August: "Russia I think has always had a Janus-like quality, both looking east and west, and I think President Putin represents a deep strain in Russia that is probably harmful to Russia over the long term….But I do think it's important to keep perspective."
Dynamic ambition
The difference is dynamic Chinese ambition in the region.
Chinese leaders believe the US will never willingly surrender its status as the pre-eminent power in Asia.
Their own long-term policy is to squeeze the US out.
Regional initiatives on development and trade are as much a part of that game plan as military modernisation.
A "strategic partnership" with Russia is a big piece of this puzzle, securing more than 4,300 kilometres of shared border, delivering Central Asia to the Sino-centric economic blueprint and stalling Japanese attempts to find partners to counteract Chinese territorial claims.
When President Obama came to office in 2009, his stated foreign policy objectives were to reset the relationship with Russia and to "pivot to Asia".
But as he nears the end of his second term, it is China which has reset the relationship with Russia, and Russia which has pivoted to Asia.
Hear Carrie Gracie's special report on the future of Chinese Russian relations, on Friday 24 April on the World Tonight, on BBC Radio 4.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
China and Russia will conduct their first-ever joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea within weeks, Beijing's military said Thursday as it extends its reach and the pair's relationship becomes ever closer.
The live-fire exercises, set for mid-May, will involve nine surface ships in total, with three from China, military spokesman Geng Yansheng said at a monthly briefing.
The Chinese vessels involved are currently participating in international anti-piracy escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast, he said.
"What needs to be stressed is that this joint exercise is not targeting any third party and is not related to regional security," he insisted.
The main purpose of the exercises was protecting the safety of navigation in "far seas", he said, with training to include maritime defence and replenishment, joint escort, "as well as the actual use and firing of weapons".
The drills are also aimed at "pragmatic cooperation between the two sides" and improving "the capability of the two navies to jointly deal with maritime threats", he added.
Relations between China and Russia have been alternately close and distant over the decades going back to the days of the Soviet Union, but have been on an upswing for the past quarter century.
Diplomatically, they often take similar stances at the United Nations where they are both permanent members of the Security Council.
Militarily they have conducted frequent joint exercises, while economically China hopes to exploit Russia's vast energy resources, and Moscow is seeking to diversify its markets amid western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea.
Echoes of the past as Moscow's Victory Day parade stirs memories of a previous anti-American alliance
May 9, 2015
Vladimir Putin, centre, and Xi Jinping, third left, watch the Victory Parade in Red Square, Moscow
At first sight, things look very different now. When President Xi Jinping of China took pride of place next to Vladimir Putin of Russia on Saturday, they looked like any other modern world leaders: pragmatic men-in-suits, full of smiles, temporary possessors of power rather than dictators-for-life.
Back in 1949, when Chairman Mao Tse-tung paid his first visit to Moscow to celebrate Comrade Joseph Stalin's 70th Birthday, it was a paean of old-school Communism.
Children in Young Pioneer uniforms paraded through the Bolshoi Opera House telling of their ambition to become tractor drivers. Mao wore a "Mao suit" and Stalin military uniform. Both men looked grumpy.
But the two events, six decades apart, have a clear parallel. Once again, the Russia-China axis is the main threat to the West's vision of peaceful and prosperous international relations.
Alongside Mr Xi were Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Raúl Castro of Cuba, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela: standouts against what Mr Putin called a unipolar world, his code phrase for the spread of western-style democracy.
In itself, there isn't much new to this. China has been railing against a "unipolar world" for a decade. Mr Putin and his allies all have their reasons for disliking the West's tendency to set a high store on open elections, a free press and "cooperative" foreign policies.
What is stark is that Russia and China are now openly stating their intention to stand together to lead such an alliance.
The history is a patchy one. In 1949, Mao felt snubbed by Stalin, who regarded him as just another leader of a Soviet-backed Communist satellite rather than an equal.
Mao's subsequent falling-out with Stalin's successors led to the US-China rapprochement following President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972. The new détente helped defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
Twenty years ago, when both Presidents Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin of China stood alongside Boris Yeltsin at the 1995 Moscow Victory Day parade, the power relations were self-evident.
A self-confident America knew that Russia was no longer a threat, while China was dependent for its economic growth on American spending power and investment.
Yesterday in Moscow there was no America – something Washington may come to regret – and there was no doubt whose smile was most confident.
Mr Xi finds himself in a diplomatic sweet spot. It is Mr Putin who gets the flak for standing up to Nato in Ukraine, for supporting the Assad regime in Syria, for threatening to sell air defence systems to Iran.
But it is China who is the ultimate winner, as America's attention is diverted from Beijing's expansion across the South China Sea.
China is openly developing a naval strategy aimed at challenging American dominance of the western Pacific, including in the waters around Japan and Taiwan.
Unlike Chairman Mao, Mr Xi is happy to be seen to play second fiddle on the podium in Moscow. With China now the rising power, he has no doubt as to where the balance of power will lie between China and Russia in years to come. Shows of Russian strength like yesterday's serve his interests, as much as Mr Putin's.
The Victory Day parade at Red Square in Moscow, Russia
Re: Russia, China Solidify Disturbing Alliance
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