Article Posted on : - Apr 28, 2009

Flags of China and Russia. A File Photo

MOSCOW (PTI): Russia and China are planning to boost their military to military ties and are to conduct as many as 25 joint manoeuvres and war games this year, the Russian Defence minister said here.

"This year we have planned around 25 joint events. This speaks of high level of interaction between the defence ministries of the two countries," Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said welcoming his visiting Chinese counterpart Gen Liang Guanglie on a visit here.

In July-August, the two neighbouring nuclear giants are scheduled to carry out an anti-terror war games - 'Peaceful Mission -2009' on their territories.

According to ITAR-TASS, the war games on the lines of earlier such drill conducted in 2005 will be carried out in three stages. First on the Russian soil and second and third stages in northeast China.

Chinese Defence Minister Gen Liang arrived here on Saturday and visited Russia's Volgograd military area in south of the country and besides bilateral meeting with Serdyukov, he is also to attend the two-day session of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers.

In his welcoming statement, Serdyukov noted that 'a number of issues, which could not be resolved during their last year's meeting in Beijing, have now been resolved.' Russia had been hesitating in providing hi-tech weapon systems to China, including Sukhoi, deck based aircraft, as in the past it had copied the Russian weapons and started exporting them to third countries at throwaway prices.

However, in February China is reported to have signed military intellectual property right (IPR) agreement under Russian pressure, as there seem to be no signs of easing EU sanctions against Beijing.