Russia: Moscow, Beijing Conclude War Games, as Region Looks On With Interest

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Thousands of Chinese and Russian troops have concluded their first-ever joint military exercises by staging a mock invasion by paratroopers on China's east coast. Chinese and Russian paratroopers simulated the seizure of an airfield as planes dropped combat vehicles by parachute on the Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea. Earlier drills included a mock amphibious assault and a sea battle. The exercise began last week in the Russian port of Vladivostok and shifted on 20 August to China.  
 
 
PRAGUE: The eight-day war game involved up to 10,000 soldiers, as well as naval ships, submarines, missiles, and Russian strategic bombers.  
 
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov saw no irony, telling reporters on 23 August that the exercises — called Peace Mission 2005 — had only peaceful aims. “These exercises do not threaten anyone. They are not aimed against anyone,” Ivanov said. “Their aim is to allow us to familiarize ourselves with each other's military capabilities, with our modern armaments and [to test] our operational capability — that is, the ability of the militaries of two friendly states to act shoulder to shoulder according to the announced scenario, which is a peacekeeping mission.”  
 
But why so many soldiers and so much heavy military hardware for an exercise designed to simulate a joint effort at ending ethnic strife somewhere on the Pacific coast? And why is Russia suddenly cozying up to one of its historical rivals? That