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Russia and China Agree to Deepen Defense Cooperation, Joint Exercises

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to China's President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders' summit in Samarkand on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to China's President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders' summit in Samarkand on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
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Russia and China Agree to Deepen Defense Cooperation, Joint Exercises

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to China's President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders' summit in Samarkand on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to China's President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders' summit in Samarkand on September 16, 2022. (AFP)

One of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies sought on Monday to deepen a strategic partnership with China, expanding defense cooperation and strengthening coordination between Moscow and Beijing on major geopolitical issues.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has tilted more strongly towards China as the war and severe Western sanctions torpedoed Russia's relationship with the United States and its European allies.

Just before the invasion, Putin and Xi Jinping declared a "no limits" partnership, though at a meeting last week in Uzbekistan Putin said he understood that the Chinese president had concerns and questions about the conflict.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally, met China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Nanping to discuss the implementation of agreements Putin and Xi reached at their meeting.

"The development of a strategic partnership with China is an unconditional priority of Russian foreign policy," the security council said in a statement.

Patrushev and Yang also discussed the Korean peninsular, Taiwan and Ukraine.

"The sides agreed on further military cooperation with a focus on joint exercises and patrols, as well as on strengthening contacts between the General Staffs," the security council said.

Patrushev, a former Soviet spy who has known Putin since the 1970s, is a hardline ally and seen as one of the few people able to influence the Russian president.

The deepening partnership between the rising superpower of China and the natural resources titan of Russia has raised alarm in some Western capitals.

In recent years China has participated in a number of Russian war games - joint military exercises designed to simulate how the countries would defend themselves against an attack.

Moscow has repeatedly backed Beijing over Taiwan and criticized what it casts as "provocations" by the United States.

China has refrained from condemning Russia's military operation against Ukraine or calling it an "invasion".

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Putin Issues Warning to US with New Nuclear Doctrine

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
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Putin Issues Warning to US with New Nuclear Doctrine

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the United States on Tuesday, lowering the threshold for a nuclear strike just days after the administration of Joe Biden reportedly allowed Ukraine to fire American missiles deep into Russia.

The updated doctrine, formally known as "The basics of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence", outlines the threats that would make Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, contemplate using such weapons.

Russia would consider a nuclear strike if it, or its ally Belarus, faced aggression "with the use of conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity", the new doctrine said.

The previous doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree, said Russia may use nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatened the existence of the state.

Other innovations included considering any conventional assault on Russia by a non-nuclear power supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack. Any mass aerospace attack with aircraft, cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft that crossed Russia's borders could also trigger a nuclear response.

"Aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies on the part of any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack," the doctrine said.

"Aggression of any state from a military coalition (bloc, union) against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is considered as aggression by the coalition (bloc, union) as a whole."

The Kremlin said Russia considered nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and that the aim of the updated text was to make absolutely clear to potential enemies that the inevitability of retaliation should they attack Russia.

Together, Russia and the US control 88% of the world's nuclear warheads. Putin is Russia's primary decision-maker on the use of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

WAR

Weeks before the November US presidential elections, Putin ordered changes to the nuclear doctrine.

Those changes have now been formally approved by Putin. Analysts said at the time that the change to the doctrine was an attempt by Putin to draw a red line for the West.

The war in Ukraine, which entered its 1,000th day on Tuesday, has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - considered to be the closest the two Cold War superpowers came to intentional nuclear war.

The reported decision on the use of US missiles by the outgoing Biden administration - though yet to be confirmed by Washington - has escalated tensions over Ukraine. Washington says Russia's deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia is an escalation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on reports that Kyiv may use US-made ATACMS missiles in support of Ukraine's military incursion into Russia's Kursk region, said on Tuesday that the Russian military was monitoring the situation very closely.

Putin said on Sept. 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean "the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine" because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.

"Nuclear deterrence is aimed at ensuring that a potential adversary understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies," Peskov said.

The United States in 2022 was so concerned about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia that it warned Putin over the consequences of using such weapons, according to Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns.

Russia has begun mass production of mobile bomb shelters that can protect against a variety of man-made threats and natural disasters including radiation and shockwaves.