Russian-Chinese military exercises and their wider perspective: Power play in Central Asia

In August for the first time in 40 years Russian and Chinese armed forces carried out joint exercises, comprising 10,000 military personnel, navy vessels and aircraft. Their most likely main objective was that China and Russia thus made it clear to the (Western) world that they consider themselves to be in control of the Asian-Pacific region and that others are denied interfering in their sphere of influence. Supported by China's rising power and with regional actors such as India and Iran as observers, much more than the CIS the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will represent to Russia a vital instrument to achieve geopolitical objectives. This paper of Marcel de Haas has been published by the British Conflict Studies Research Centre in cooperation with Clingendael Institute.