China and Belarus conduct joint military exercises right next to NATO and EU’s border

(CNN) — China and Belarus announced they were holding joint military training exercises just miles from the border of Poland – a NATO and European Union member.

Belarus’ Ministry of Defense said troops from China’s People’s Liberation Army arrived in Belarus over the weekend. It published a series of photographs showing Chinese troops offloading equipment from a military cargo aircraft and said the drills will last for 11 days, from Monday to July 19.

NATO and the EU have long accused Belarus of weaponizing the border by pushing asylum-seekers from third countries to its borders and the joint exercises will no doubt be seen by some as a further provocation – especially as they come on the eve of NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, D.C., and on the day that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Poland.

CNN has reached out to NATO for comment.

China’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that the drills will include “hostage rescue operations and counter-terrorism missions.”

“The training aims to enhance the training levels and coordination capabilities of the participating troops, as well as deepen practical cooperation between the armies of the two countries,” it added.

The exercises are taking place near the Belarus city of Brest on the Belarus-Poland border which is around 130 miles from the Polish capital of Warsaw and some 40 miles from Minsk’s border with Ukraine.

Belarus is Russia’s closest and most significant ally as it wages its war on Ukraine. Moscow partly used Belarus as a launching pad for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after amassing troops on the Ukrainian border during what it said were joint military exercises.

The Chinese troops arrived in Belarus just days after that country joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Thursday.

Founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to combat terrorism and promote border security, the SCO has grown in recent years as Beijing and Moscow drive a transformation of the bloc from a regional security club with a focus on Central Asia to a geopolitical counterweight to Western institutions led by the United States and its allies.

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