Russia's Delicate Asian Balance

Historically naval exercises have sometimes played a key role in diplomatic signaling. One can only look back at the Franco-Russian naval exercises in 1891-92, which portended the creation of the Double Entente and the Franco-Russian alliance. Bearing that in mind what do the Russo-Chinese naval exercises of April 22-27 tell us? First of all it appears that there was far more commentary in the Chinese press than in the Russian one about these exercises. Second, although both sides announced the exercises only on March 29, they were the result of an agreement between both sides’ navies and armed forces in April -August, 2011. The Russian press claimed the earlier date and the Chinese and Taiwanese claimed August (Interfax-AVN Online, March 30, Taipei times Online, April 2, Jiefangjun Bao Online, April 18).