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Here is the rundown of these exercises:
December 2019
Iran, China and Russia began joint naval drills on Friday in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman, in what Moscow said was an unprecedented exercise in naval cooperation and training. . . .
“The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting security through cooperation and unity… and its result will be to show that Iran cannot be isolated,” Iranian flotilla admiral Gholamreza Tahani said on state television.
September 2020
Chinese, Iranian and Russian forces are to participate in joint military exercises in southern Russia later this month, alongside troops from Armenia, Belarus, Myanmar and Pakistan. India cancelled its involvement over mounting cross-border tensions between Delhi and Beijing.
The “Caucus 2020” drills will focus on defensive tactics, encirclement and battlefield control and command, according to China’s Defence Ministry yesterday. The drills have special significance “at this important moment when the entire world is fighting the pandemic,” the ministry said.
February 2021
Iranian forces have concluded a two-day naval exercise with Russia in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
Forces and vessels from the navy divisions of both the Iranian army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) participated in the drill, which kicked off on Tuesday, alongside several vessels from the Russian navy.
February 2022
China and Russia, America’s increasingly aligned great power adversaries, teamed up with Iran last month to hold a trilateral naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman and northern Indian Ocean, which Tehran dubbed Maritime Security Belt 2022. While the exercise itself was of limited importance militarily, the drill provides the latest evidence of growing security cooperation between China, Russia, and Iran that should sound alarm bells in Washington, Jerusalem, and key Arab capitals.
The exercise’s stated purpose was to focus on anti-air, counter-piracy, and nighttime maritime operation skills — fairly standard objectives for maritime exercises. It was clear, however, that the exercise had a larger purpose for the three governments, which are unified in their opposition to the United States.
The Global Times, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, cited “restrictions on major sea routes from some major powers, especially the US,” as one of the reasons for the exercise. That represents a transparently cynical effort to flip the script given Beijing’s illegitimate territorial claims in the South China Sea and efforts to curtail freedom of navigation there.
March 2023
Naval forces from China, Iran and Russia — all countries at varying degrees of odds with the United States — are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, China’s Defence Ministry has announced.
Other countries are also taking part in the “Security Bond-2023” exercises, the ministry said Tuesday without giving details. Iran, Pakistan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all have coastline along the waterbody lying at the mouth of the strategic Persian Gulf.
“This exercise will help deepen practical cooperation between the participating countries’ navies … and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability,” the ministry statement said.
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