KARACHI: China and Pakistan will hold Arabian Sea joint military drills namely “Sea Guardians-3”, that will be focused on ‘jointly responding to maritime security threats’, the Chinese defence ministry said on Thursday.
The third Sea Guardians exercise will take place against the backdrop of increasing tensions in the Middle East over the war in Gaza, the ministry added.
China and Pakistan will hold their third joint naval exercises next month in the north of the Arabian Sea, the Chinese defence ministry said on Thursday.
The Sea Guardians-3 drills will focus on formation movements, inspection and capture, mutual landing of helicopters, joint search and rescue, as well as anti-submarine operations, the ministry said.
The two countries are aiming to further deepen the “China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and traditional friendship”, and improve the level of actual combat training between the two militaries, it added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar at last week’s belt and road forum in Beijing and pledged to “promote regional unity and cooperation and safeguard the legitimate interests of developing countries”.
Last month, the PLA Air Force’s J-16 fighter jet and Pakistan’s J-10C and JF-17 fighters took to the skies over northwest China for Shaheen-X, a joint air exercise aimed at validating interoperability in the face of “realistic contemporary air combat scenarios”.
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