China, Russia and Mongolia held their first joint border defense drills this week, reports „Reuters“, reports News.bg.
This highlights the closer coordination in the field of security between the three neighboring countries.
According to the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the exercise, called „Border Defense Cooperation - 2025“, was held yesterday and today in an unidentified border region that the three countries share.
The aim of the exercises is „to strengthen strategic cooperation between the three countries, to strengthen the ability to deal with threats to border security and to further consolidate strategic mutual "trust," the Chinese military said.
During the maneuvers, a joint command post was set up on Chinese territory, operating on the principle of "whose territory is, that country takes the lead, with multilateral consultations and parallel command."
The exercises were held immediately after a trilateral meeting between the leaders of the three countries in Beijing on September 2, a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed more than 20 non-Western leaders to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, where he called for a new world order for security and economy.
Mongolia has refrained from joining the SCO and has been an observer state since 2004, even as other countries, such as India, Pakistan and Iran, have become full members.
Beijing continues to push its smaller neighbor to become a member of the Group of Ten countries.