Iran, China and Russia conduct joint exercises in the Gulf of Oman
The Biden administration and the National Security Council said they closely monitored several days of rare joint naval exercises between China, Russia and Iran held in the Gulf of Oman, one of the world's most important areas for commercial traffic.
The "Security Bond-2023" exercises took place from Wednesday to Saturday and focused on deepening "practical cooperation among the navies of participating countries … and injecting positive energy into regional peace and stability," according to the Ministry of Defense of China. The allies confirmed that the exercises ended on Saturday and hailed their "success".
Iran, China, and Russia hold joint drills in Sea of Oman
Dubbed "the Marine Security Belt 2023", the military maneuver aims to strengthen regional security.
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Iranian and Russian state media have published and broadcast footage of the exercises, which involved joint maneuvers of warships, deployment of aircraft and day and night artillery fire.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the United States is not particularly concerned by these exercises. “We will observe them, we will monitor them, of course, to make sure there is no threat from this exercise to our national security interests or those of our allies and partners in the region,” he told CNN , admitting that “but the nations train. We always do. We will check it as best we can."
According to the Wall Street Journal, “however, the exercise is significantly smaller than those conducted by the US military, which is concluding an 18-day naval exercise in the Middle East involving 42 other nations, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates".
While it is not the first time that Russians and Chinese have trained together in or near the Persian Gulf region, it is another sign of deepening cooperation after they declared their "limitless partnership" in February 2022.
The timing of the exercises precedes the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow by a few days to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and discuss the war in Ukraine and possible ways for peace negotiations.
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The article Iran, China and Russia conduct joint exercises in the Gulf of Oman comes from Scenarios Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/iran-cina-e-russia-conducono-esercitazioni-congiunte-nel-golfo-di-oman/ on Mon, 20 Mar 2023 07:00:09 +0000.