China, Russia hold naval drill

Chinese and Russian naval ships gathered for a naval drill involving 19 ships on Friday, the largest joint exercise to include China’s People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese fleet of seven ships arrived in Russia’s far eastern port of Vladivostock early Friday to join the Russian ships taking part in the one-week exercise, state media said. The ships were scheduled to stage Maritime Joint Exercise 2013 in the nearby Peter the Great Bay off the Sea of Japan, China’s Ministry of Defence said. Eight types of planes and two special forces units would also join the exercises, which include anti-submarine and air-defence drills, it said. The event posed “no military threat” to other nations and was “just one of a series of routine exercises between China and Russia in the context of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries,” said the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.