The United States says the joint drills pose no new threat, but deepening ties between the rival states will be ‘monitored’.
Naval forces from China, Iran and Russia are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, Beijing has said, amid heightened tensions with the United States.
‘This exercise will help deepen practical cooperation between the participating countries’ navies … and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability,’ the Chinese Ministry of National Defence said in a statement on Wednesday
It added that other countries were also taking part in the ‘Security Bond-2023’ exercises, without providing details. AlJazeera reported.
Iran, Pakistan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all have coastlines along the Gulf of Oman, which lies at the mouth of the strategic Persian Gulf.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the White House was not concerned by the joint training exercise, as it was not the first time that the Russians and Chinese trained together.
‘We’re going to watch it, we’ll monitor it, obviously, to make sure that there’s no threat resulting from this training exercise to our national security interests or those of our allies and partners in the region,’ Kirby said on CNN.
‘But nations train. We do it all the time. We’ll watch it as best we can.’
