U.S. Say Keeping Eye on Russia-China Wargames

MosNews | August 16 2005

The United States will keep an eye on Chinese-Russian wargames starting Thursday and hopes they will not de-stabilize the region, AFP reported Monday quoting the State Department.

Spokesman Sean McCormack said both Beijing and Moscow had advised Washington about the unusual joint exercises that will last a week and involve some 10,000 troops from the two countries.

“We are following the exercises,” McCormack was quoted by AFP as saying. “We expect that they will be conducted in a manner that supports some mutual goal of regional stability shared by the United States, China and Russia.”

The spokesman said the United States would not have any observers at the wargames. “But we would hope that anything that they do is not something that would be disruptive to the current atmosphere in the region.”

Ships from the Russian Pacific Fleet arrived in the eastern Chinese port of Qingdao on Friday for wargames which Beijing said were aimed at strengthening the allies’ ability to fight terrorism and separatism

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