China, Russia Holding Military Drills In Sea of Japan

China and Russia will hold joint naval and air defense drills in the Sea of Japan, China said on Thursday, the latest exercises between the two countries which could concern Japan, involved in a marine dispute with China to the south.

The maneuvers also come as the United States ramps up military cooperation with its allies in Asia in response to China's increasingly assertive pursuit of territorial claims in the disputed waters of the South and East China seas.

China and Russia are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, and have held similar views on key policy questions like the crisis in Syria, putting them at odds with the United States and Western Europe.

The exercises, which will take place from Aug. 20-28, will take place in the Gulf of Peter the Great, which lies off the strategic Far Eastern Russian port city of Vladivostok, and in the Sea of Japan, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a monthly news briefing .... https://ca.news.yahoo.com