Chinese military team inspects Russian bases as Putin hails ‘natural allies’

A PLA inspection team visited several facilities in Russia’s Eastern Military District this week, including an air defence missile unit in the far-eastern Jewish Autonomous Region, Russian media reported.

The visit, conducted under a decades-old confidence-building mechanism, came as President Vladimir Putin described China and Russia as “natural allies and partners”, while emphasising that their deepening military cooperation was not directed against any third party.

The June 2-3 inspection trip by the People’s Liberation Army was a routine verification exercise under a pair of agreements signed by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the Russian news agency Tass reported, citing the district command’s press office.

The 1996 Agreement on Confidence Building in the Military Field in Border Areas and the 1997 Agreement on Mutual Reduction of Military Forces in Border Areas formed part of the diplomatic architecture that later evolved into the Shanghai Five mechanism and ultimately the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation bloc led by China and Russia.

The Russian side framed the PLA trip as proof that the mechanisms created three decades ago remained effective and relevant.

“During the inspection, the Chinese delegation confirmed that the Russian Federation had fully met its international obligations and praised the effectiveness of the monitoring mechanisms established under the agreements with China,” Tass reported on Thursday.