Vostok-2018: Sino-Russian joint maneuvers. The cost of the next war rises ...

(To Alessandro Rugolo)
03/09/18

No, this is not a science fiction story, as some may have thought upon reading the title ... Vostok-2018, also known as East-2018, will be the largest Russian military exercise since Zapad (1981). 

300.000 men, 1000 aircraft and 900 tanks, naval units of the Pacific and North fleets and for the first time of the Chinese units, will work together along the border to the east. Together with the two BigMongolia will also participate in the exercise.

But it is appropriate to say that this time the importance of the exercise should not be seen in size, unthinkable for us, much less in the type of weapons used, but rather in strategic innovation: Russia and China are practiced together, as Allies! And this changes things radically. 

The Vostok 2018 tutorial is not the first in the series. In the 2014 were deployed forces for 100.000 men, 1.500 tanks and 70 ships, but then China was not among the friends.

According to some foreign observers, China would be interested in checking how war techniques have evolved given that the Chinese Armed Forces do not go to war with the 1979 (against Vietnam), while Russia is now involved in Syria.

On closer inspection, Russia and China have already begun to carry out joint defensive missile drills since last year.

The US vs RUSSIA & CHINA tension looks set to increase.

(photo: MoD Russian Federation)