Continuing to 17 October 2021, Russia and China have commenced naval exercise drills in the area of the Asian Seas known as the Sea of Japan. Artillery firings, mine countermeasures, and a drill involving detection and tracking of a notional enemy’s submarine will train crews in the correct activities says a statement of the Russian Ministry of Defence press office.
At least a dozen fixed and rotary wing military aircraft will participate in the exercises.
by Melissa Hemingway and Micheal John
According to the Russian Tass news agency, the Russian Navy is represented in the naval drills by the anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Panteleyev; the ‘Project 20380’ corvettes Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov and Gromky; two coastal-type minesweepers; the Project 877 submarine Ust-Bolsheretsk; a missile warship and a rescue tug.
The Chinese warships participating in the naval exercises include the destroyers Kunming and Nanchang, as well as the corvettes Qinzhou and Luzhou and also a diesel submarine, a supply ship and a rescue vessel.
Some Chinese vessels had arrived at the anchorage site in the ‘Peter the Great Bay’ on 13 October, the Russian Ministry of Defence press office said.
Russian Navy is represented in the naval drills by the anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Panteleyev; the ‘Project 20380’ corvettes Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov and Gromky; two coastal-type minesweepers; the Project 877 submarine Ust-Bolsheretsk; a missile warship and a rescue tug. Photo Credit: Russian Defence Ministry | cropped | Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
Geraldine Frisque, a spokesperson for the RINJ Women, a global women’s rights group which is a principal in the protest against militarization of the Asian Seas noted that, “this is a routine monthly exercise we have observed over a long period of time and nothing unusual.”
“China and Russia have gradually stepped up their exercises in recent years. Their task forces do joint defensive maneuvers plus some benign search-and-rescue (SAR) operational training for their crews.
“The likely reason for the increase in training activity,” she said, “is because China’s military is not battle-tested whereas the Russian navy crews are more experienced hence the Chinese commanders responsibly seek those training benefits to save lives.
Many sides to the story.
“Also, she continued, “the massive buildup of American nuclear weapons in the region according to Mark Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense in 2019, who said “Let’s be clear about this. We are not talking about conventional weapons”, has caused China’s leadership to have panic attacks, or in the alternative, a compelling adherence to its responsibility to protect the Chinese people,” she added. “Take your pick.”
“Four Indian Navy Warships and the Canadian HMCS Winnipeg are currently in the south Asian Seas and plan to join some or all of the Australian, Japanese, German, American and British warships churning up the seas and killing fish, coral reefs, sea birds and other sea life with their artillery, for exercises,” says the coordinator of the Protest to Demilitarize the South China Sea.
“If anyone has a complaint about the Russia/China training drills, they should harken back to ours and our civil society partners’ warnings that the Indian, American, Canadian, French, Australian and German warships madly plowing through the commercial shipping lanes of the Asian Seas, bumping into things and wreaking havoc on the natural environment, were bound to be seen by the Chinese as a military threat and provoke a response that could become a Cold-War-level arms race. And so it predictably begins,” she said.
“China’s build-up of bizarre man-made military islands which are nothing more than tons of sand and dirt piled on coral and jammed with bombers, missiles, radars and bailing buckets, highly vulnerable to being washed away or flooded over in a growing number of climate-crisis-spawned typhoons and the rising ocean levels; plus America’s foolish insistence on driving their nuclear submarines far from home into submerged reefs off the coast of the Philippines, has millions of coastal families in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Brunei also having panic attacks. None of this is good, nor is it healthy. It’s a prelude to a war a few power-greedy men will fight at the expense of their military personnel and the rest of the human race,” she added.
“A poll of new members signed up for the 11 November protests tells us that a best-effort to learn if these naval warships have ever made an effort to help the little fishing boats get to their fishing areas without being attacked by Chinese marine militia or China’s Coast Guard, produced a fat zero. People are still starving and being rammed by China, so what’s the damn point” she added.
This Asian Seas story is told too often with warships but thousands of these is what it is really all about. Asian families need to eat. The war and military buildup in the Asian Seas between America and China threatens the existence of millions of ordinary people. Photo Credit: Micheal John/FPMag
According to FPM.news naval sources in three navies, since June, a U.S. aircraft carrier group led by the USS Ronald Reagan is in the Asian Seas as part task force to intimidate China and conduct ‘freedom of navigation exercises’ and a British carrier group will meet up with the Indian naval task force as well as the American flotilla in Guam.
“These sailors and land invasion forces,” suggested Ms. Frisque, “will likely spread more COVID-19 to the desperately ill people of the Guam island autonomous region, and then go forth for more joint exercises in the Asian Seas causing no end of consternation and destroying the ecological balance and smash more reefs with their nuclear submarines,” suggested Ms. Frisque who said she was speaking on behalf of the protest against the militarization of the South China Sea..
Four Indian Navy Warships and the Canadian HMCS Winnipeg are currently in the south Asian Seas and plan to join some or all of the Australian, Japanese, German, American and British warships churning up the seas and killing fish, coral reefs, sea birds and other sea life with their artillery, for exercises. Photo Credit: Indian Navy source supplied. Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine