Chinese And South African Joint Military Exercises, Russian Minister Of Foreign Affairs: The West Is More Frequent

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while attending the G20 Summit in Bali. (Twitter/@mfa_russia)

JAKARTA - Russia is developing military-technical cooperation with China and South Africa, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a press conference after talks with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor on Monday.

"Regarding the naval drills (by Russia, South Africa, and China) and to what extent they reflect a desire to develop military cooperation: we are developing military cooperation with the People's Republic of China and also with the Republic of South Africa," Lavrov said, January 23.

He recalled that trilateral exercise was nothing new.

"We have held naval exercises with China and India," Foreign Minister Lavrov explained.

Furthermore, Foreign Minister Lavrov described the confused reaction of the West, which has often made noise about "something common in maritime power practice".

"Especially in a situation where the West is carrying out such exercises under an openly aggressive scenario, much more often than our country does," he said.

It is known, the Naval exercises involving ships from South Africa, Russia, and China will be held from 17 February to 27 February.

As South Africa's Ministry of Defense says on its website, the exercise will be held in the Indian Ocean over 10 days in the region, from the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay "with the aim of sharing operational skills and knowledge."

The ministry said the joint exercises were to "strengthen the already developed relationship between South Africa, Russia and China."

Their first trilateral exercise was held in November 2019 in the Cape Town area of ​​the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of South Africa.