For the first time in history Chinese troops will participate in Vostok-2018, the largest miltary drills Moscow held since Zapad-81 that brought together troops from USSR and Warsaw Pact countries. This is a milestone for Sino-Russian military ties, and it's very important 1/ 
Since 2005 China has participated in numerous joint drills with Russia, mostly under SCO "Peace Mission" umbrella. It included 8 naval drills (in 2018 both navies trained in Baltic and East China seas) + 2 missile-defense computer simulations aimed at countering U.S. THAAD 2/
China participates in "Peace Mission" again this year, the drills will be held Aug 22-29 at Chebarkul range with 700 PLA personnel, 2 J-11 fighters, 4 JH-7 bomber-fighters, 6 transport jets + tanks and armored vehicles. But Vostok-2018 will bring it to a different level 3/
According to Chinese MOD, PLA will send 3200 personnel, 900 tanks, guns, armored vehicles + 30 jets, helicopters. The drills will take place in Zabaykalsky krai Zugol range on Sept 11-15 4/ mod.gov.cn/topnews/2018-0…
More important that the record number of Chinese troops is the fact that for the first time in history Russia invites China to be part of major strategic exercise - a role that was previously reserved for CSTO allies like Belarus during infamous Zapad-2017 5/
Vostok drills are aimed at countering foreign invasions and addressing military threats for Siberia and the Far East. China was among potential adversaries for many years. Now Moscow's message is that it doesn't view Beijing as an adversary any more. 6/
Of course, reality is more complex, and the Russian military leadership is looking into scenarios in which China is not the best friend, but a security challenge too. But as for now Beijing and Moscow are moving much closer together than any time since 1950s 7/
Personal ties between Putin and Xi Jinping is one of the driving forces. Both men will be in Vladivostok on Sept 11 at the Eastern Economic Forum. They may inspect the nearby joint drills in person, demonstrating new depth in Sino-Russian ties, from economy to security 8/
Needles to say, by lumping Russia and China together in the NSS-2017, as well as by taking adversarial course to both Moscow and Beijing at the same time, the U.S. is fueling rapprochement between the two. It's symbolic, but starting to move beyond symbolism 9/
Sino-Russia military ties have consequences for the West, the most immediate are RU exports of sophisticated hardware like S-400, Su-35 etc. to be used by PLA in hotspots like SCS, Senkaku, Taiwan Strait. Downplaying it like Sec Mattis did in Singapore is dangerous complacency.
Don’t forget naval drills! “Naval Interaction-2018” will be held in East China Sea, off Qingdao coast, in September. It’s smaller scale compared to NI-2017, but the annual nature of the format is sustained. ria.ru/defense_safety…
Yet another important development this year: participation of Chinese strategic bombers that patrol SCS/Taiwan Strait in Russia-hosted drills in July. First joint excercise with a foreign air force . m.scmp.com/news/china/dip…
Since Sino-Russian military cooperation is based on idea of reciprocity, it’s logical to expect in 2019 Russian troops to take part in large Chinese military drills like those Xi inspected in 2017 in Inner Mongolia
