IRIA News

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China and Russia started Joint Sea-2025 exercises on August 3, 2025, near the Russian port city of Vladivostok in the Sea of Japan, to show military coordination and political alignment.

The joint naval drills are reinforcing their deepening military and strategic partnership amid rising global tensions and continued confrontation with the United States and its allies. The exercises, dubbed Joint Sea-2025, will continue for three days, according to China’s Ministry of National Defense.

The joint exercises underscore a continued trend of increasing cooperation between the two countries, both of which have faced growing pressure from the West, Russia due to its ongoing war in Ukraine, and China due to its military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and tensions over Taiwan.

The drills are the latest demonstration of how Beijing and Moscow are working to counterbalance what they view as an increasingly aggressive and unilateral U.S.-led global order.

High-level military coordination

According to official Chinese sources, the drills will feature complex military operations, including submarine rescue missions, joint anti-submarine warfare, air defense and anti-missile exercises, and broader maritime combat maneuvers.

Four Chinese naval vessels are participating in the exercises, including the advanced guided-missile destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi. They are joined by several Russian warships, including a large anti-submarine ship and diesel-electric submarines, along with a Chinese submarine rescue vessel.

Russia’s Pacific Fleet confirmed the scope of the joint detachment and noted that the sailors would also conduct artillery firing, practice joint air defense missions, and rehearse search and rescue operations at sea. The maneuvers fall under the broader framework of the Maritime Interaction-2025 initiative and are scheduled to conclude on August 5.

Strategic significance of location

This year’s exercises are taking place in the Sea of Japan, a body of water that borders Russia, Japan, and both Koreas, marking a shift from last year’s drills, which were conducted along China’s southern coast. The choice of location is particularly notable given recent Japanese concerns over the growing military ties between Beijing and Moscow.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense, in its annual report released last month, flagged China-Russia military coordination as a serious and evolving security concern. The Sea of Japan, although not a direct flashpoint like the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea, has strategic significance due to its proximity to U.S. allies and forward-deployed forces in East Asia.

Message to the West

The timing and nature of the drills also send a strong message to Western capitals. The joint exercises began just two days after U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be deployed to “appropriate regions” in response to comments made by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev about the increasing risk of a nuclear conflict.

Although Trump’s statement is unrelated to the drills in terms of scheduling, since the China-Russia exercises were planned earlier, it adds a layer of tension to already strained military posturing between major powers.

Apart from being a stern warning to Russia, Trump’s statement regarding the submarine movement is highly unusual for a U.S. president, as the movement of nuclear submarines is usually not openly disclosed, suggesting that Washington is also looking to assert its strategic deterrent in the region.

While the Russian Navy has emphasized that the drills are “defensive in nature and not directed against other countries,” analysts suggest they serve a dual function: training operational coordination between the two armed forces and signaling military readiness to outside observers.

Evolving China-Russia partnership

Since the onset of the Ukraine war in 2022, China and Russia have moved closer diplomatically, economically, and militarily. Beijing has provided Moscow with crucial economic support amid sweeping Western sanctions, allowing Russia to continue exporting energy and importing key goods. Politically, the two powers maintain a “no-limits” strategic partnership, signed shortly before the Ukraine conflict began.

Though China has consistently claimed neutrality in the Ukraine war, it has neither condemned Russia’s actions nor called for a withdrawal of Russian troops. Instead, Chinese officials have called for an end to hostilities while accusing Western governments, particularly the United States, of prolonging the war by continuing to arm Ukraine.

Many in the West remain skeptical of China’s neutral stance. European leaders have repeatedly urged Beijing to use its influence over Moscow to help end the war, but there has been little sign that such pressure has had any meaningful effect. In practice, Beijing’s “peace posture” has been balanced by actions that suggest tacit support for Russia’s strategic aims.

A longstanding military partnership

The Joint Sea exercises began in 2012 and have been held annually since then, alternating between Chinese and Russian waters. They reflect a maturing security relationship that has expanded far beyond symbolic displays of friendship.

In recent years, the two countries have conducted strategic bomber patrols over the East China Sea and Sea of Japan, practiced missile defense drills, and coordinated naval patrols in the western Pacific. These activities signal an intent not just to deepen bilateral military trust but to challenge the U.S.-led security architecture in the Indo-Pacific.

In addition to direct cooperation, the drills allow both sides to test interoperability and improve their joint command and control systems. Analysts believe this coordination could become particularly important in future scenarios involving Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, or the Arctic, where overlapping interests are likely to evolve into joint strategic planning.

Global implications

The growing China-Russia alignment complicates the strategic calculus for the United States and its allies in both Europe and Asia. In the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. is strengthening alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines, while pushing for greater security ties with India and Southeast Asian nations. At the same time, NATO is recalibrating its posture to consider potential threats posed by Beijing, a shift reflected in recent summit communiques.

The Vladivostok naval drills highlight how Beijing and Moscow are willing to combine their military capabilities in regions of strategic overlap, both to strengthen their defense posture and to undermine Western dominance in global security governance.

As the war in Ukraine grinds on and tensions mount over Taiwan and the South China Sea, the symbolic and operational relevance of joint China-Russia military exercises is expected to grow. While the drills may not represent a formal alliance, they are an unmistakable signal of a shifting global order, one increasingly shaped by great power competition, regional militarization, and a recalibrated balance of influence.