The joint drill by the two nations, the first since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, came amid a meeting of leaders of the Quad block in Tokyo.
China on Tuesday went on the offensive against the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy and Quad alliance, which includes India, as it launched a diplomatic salvo from Beijing and deployed bomber jets along with Russian fighter aircraft over the seas near Japan.
The joint drill by the two nations, the first since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, came amid a meeting of leaders of the Quad block in Tokyo. The air patrol, which is part of the two countries’ “annual military cooperation plan”, took place over the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the Western Pacific, according to a statement by the Chinese defence ministry on its official website.
Russia’s defence ministry also confirmed the drill, which lasted 13 hours and involved Russian Tu-95 and Chinese Xian H-6 strategic bombers. China also condemned a joint statement of Quad leaders expressing strong opposition to “any coercive… action that seek to change the status quo and increase tensions in the region”
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