From Times Online:
Russia and China announced plans for an intensified programme of military cooperation yesterday as part of a burgeoning “strategic partnership”.
As many as 25 joint manoeuvres will be staged this year in a demonstration of strengthening ties between Moscow and Beijing, Russia’s Defence Minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, said at a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie.
Mr Serdyukov gave no details of the planned exercises but said that Russia was “satisfied with the level of our military and military-technical cooperation” with China. The talks took place ahead of a meeting in Moscow today (wed) of defence ministers from the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), seen as an emerging rival to Nato.
The Kremlin underscored the SCO’s growing military role, saying that the meeting of defence ministers was one of its “most important activities”. The SCO held its first military exercises in 2007, when Russia’s then President, Vladimir Putin, praised the organisation’s “growing defence potential”.
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