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Hayley Wong

China and Russia have started a joint drill in the South China Sea following an exercise that simulated the search and arrest of “suspicious vessels”.
Navies from the two countries began the “Joint Sea-2024” exercise on Sunday at an unidentified military port in Zhanjiang in southern China’s Guangdong province, state news agency Xinhua reported.
It said after the opening ceremony on Sunday, that the two navies intended to carry out “on-map military simulation and tactical coordination” and discussion – something not mentioned in previous years.


The announcement did not specify the scale of the drill or how long it would last but said it would include weapons training, search and rescue operations and defensive activities.
Another report by Xinhua said the maritime drills began on Monday.
The two countries have just wrapped up a separate exercise in which a flotilla practised shipborne helicopter landings on each other’s vessels and “search and arrest” operations, according to a WeChat post by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The flotilla sailed from the waters south of South Korea’s Jeju Island, passed by the Philippine Sea through Osumi Strait in northern Japan and entered the South China Sea through the Balintang Channel, a waterway that separates the Batanes and Babuyan Islands, both belonging to the Philippines.
The PLA said its destroyer Yinchuan, the frigate Hengshui and the replenishment ship Weishanhu, along with the Russian corvette Sovershenny, arrived in the South China Sea on Sunday.
Each navy sent a shipborne helicopter and a special operation unit in addition to the vessels, the post said. Pictures posted to WeChat revealed speedboats from both sides were also involved.
The duration of the patrol was not officially announced but Russia’s defence ministry said on July 4 that the Sovershenny “arrived at a meeting point with a detachment of PLA Navy warships in the Strait of Korea near Jeju Island” for the countries’ fourth maritime patrol in the Pacific Rim.
The Chinese and Russian navies simulated a situation using the Hengshui frigate as a “suspicious vessel”, which they stopped and searched when they were in the Philippine Sea, Russian state-owned Sputnik News reported on Wednesday.
“Helicopters carried by the destroyer Yinchuan and corvette Sovershenny took off to provide air support,” according to Sputnik, which said the captain of the ship was “arrested after weapons were found on the ship” in the drill.

While the PLA said the joint maritime patrol “was not targeted at third parties or related to current international and regional situations”, it took place at a time when disputes between China and the Philippines have escalated.
One of the most intense skirmishes in the South China Sea took place on June 17 when the Chinese coastguard intercepted and boarded a Philippine naval mission sent to resupply troops stationed on the disputed reef.
Joint Sea-2024 began soon after the United States, Japan and South Korea wrapped up an unprecedented, trilateral drill – the joint “Freedom Edge” exercise in the East China Sea – near Jeju Island over three days from June 27.
Washington has strengthened its alliances in the region with nations that perceive increasing challenges from China’s military build-up and manoeuvres.


Meanwhile, China has continued to boost ties with Russia since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, and enhanced military strategic cooperation as both countries find their relationship with the West is increasingly tense.
In their joint four-day military drill last year, more than 10 warships and 30 aircraft combined were sent to the Sea of Japan under the theme of “safeguarding the safety of strategic maritime passage”.


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Military

In joint warship patrol in lead-up to the drill, Chinese-Russian vessels practise ‘search and arrest’ in western and northern Pacific


In joint warship patrol in the lead-up to the drill, Chinese-Russian flotilla practises ‘search and arrest’ in the Pacific.
