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Russian, Chinese warships start joint exercise in Yellow Sea

The war games will be conducted in two stages and will round off on April 27

MOSCOW, April 22 (Itar-Tass) — Russia and China start on Sunday the naval exercise “Sea Cooperation-2012” in the Yellow Sea, Itar-Tass learnt at the press service of the Russian Defence Ministry.

“The plot of the joint war games of the Russian and Chinese navies provides for accomplishing a set of tasks on organising joint defence and cooperation in ensuring security on sea lanes,” the Defence Ministry noted.

“The war games will be conducted in two stages and will round off on April 27. The first stage provides for resolving the tasks of basic preparation of headquarters and ship crews, and the second – training sessions of warships will be staged at specially pinpointed sea areas,” the press service specified.

“The information exchange on high seas between Russian and Chinese warships will be made only in the Russian language during the active phase of the ‘Sea Cooperation-2012’,” the Russian Defence Ministry emphasised.

The Russian side musters for the war games a force of Pacific Fleet warships, consisting of the missile cruiser Varyag, the big anti-submarine ships Admiral Vinogradov and Marshal Shaposhnikov and auxiliary ships as well as the big anti-submarine ship of the Northern Fleet Admiral Tributs and auxiliary ships.

Deputy chief of the Main Staff of the Russian navy, Rear Admiral Leonid Sukhanov is responsible for the exercise from the Russian side.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, training of the joint headquarters of the exercise on conducting practical actions as well as training on communications between the joint headquarters and command points of forces of Russian and Chinese warships will be carried out during the war games.

Russia and China regularly conduct joint naval exercises. The largest Russian-Chinese war games on high seas were mounted in 2005 over the past decade. The Chinese side mustered over 60 surface ships and submarines, and the Russian – around ten warships, including two submarines.