Anadolu via Russian MoD.
- Russia this week launched large-scale naval and air drills with China.
- Military cooperation between the two powers is growing.
- Some experts say it’s a potential threat the scale of which the US hasn’t faced in decades.
China and Russia have long railed against what they claim is the malign influence of US power.
Now, they’re sending a signal to the West that they have the combined military strength to challenge US dominance.
On Tuesday, the Russian military launched large-scale naval and air drills in the Sea of Japan alongside China.
Taking place in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the Mediterranean, Caspian, and Baltic Seas, the “Ocean-24” exercise is massive in scale.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, it involves more than 400 warships, submarines, and support vessels, more than 120 planes and helicopters, and more than 90,000 troops.
“This exercise aims to deepen the strategic cooperation level between the Chinese and Russian militaries and enhance their ability to jointly deal with security threats,” China’s Defense Ministry said Monday, reported
The Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States last October urged the Pentagon to urgently revise its strategy so it could potentially fight both powers at the same time.
Some analysts, though, are pointing to tensions between Russia and China that could weaken the alliance.
Russia has become a junior partner to Xi’s China, and it is increasingly reliant on it to keep its war machine and economy running.
And China is likely using the war in Ukraine for its own purposes, to weaken and distract the West as it plans a possible attack on Taiwan, analysts at the Royal United Services Institute in the UK wrote in July.
But for now, the alliance is growing closer, and Thomson said that the US will be watching the latest military exercises between Russia and China closely.
“This is yet another signal that the geopolitical environment continues to deteriorate amid ongoing great power competition,” he said.