MOSCOW, 13 Aug. The joint exercises of the Russian and Chinese navies off the coast of Alaska surprised the American leadership, said former adviser to the head of the Pentagon Douglas McGregor in his blog on YouTube.
He noted that for many years Moscow has watched NATO conduct maneuvers in the Baltic Sea and brings them closer and closer to the Russian borders. The Kremlin repeatedly warned the West about the danger of such actions and asked to conduct exercises far from its borders, but Washington ignored these demands, the officer recalled. The same situation has arisen off the coast of China, he clarified.
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«The idea that we will ever stop is absurd, so the Russians and Chinese <…> began exercises in the North Pacific, quite far from US territorial waters, but in a place where they had never conducted them before. The fact that China and Russia can carry out such joint operations was surprising,” the colonel said.
According to him, Washington did not expect such a step from Moscow and Beijing.
br>At the end of July, Russia and China began to carry out the tasks of the third joint maritime patrol of the Pacific Ocean. According to The Wall Street Journal, 11 ships approached the Aleutian Islands, but did not enter US territorial waters. Nevertheless, this caused concern in the States.