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China, Russia start joint military exercises
"There are no indications of coming together to form a strategic alliance of Moscow and Beijing," said Robert Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor for military journal Jane's Defense Weekly. However, the exercises demonstrate a shift in the Chinese military's policy from its typical inward focus, Karniol said. "They've come to increasingly accept multilateral solutions and accepted the understanding that there are things to learn from exercising with other countries," he said. The exercises come amid warming ties between the countries since the end of the Cold War, driven by mutual concerns about the United States' dominance in world affairs and a shared interest in combating extremism in Central Asia, AP quoted analysts as saying. The two are the dominant countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes four former Soviet republics in Central Asia and added Iran, India and Pakistan this year as observers. Representatives from the organization's countries have been invited to watch the exercises. At a July summit, the organization called on Washington to set a date for the withdrawal from Central Asia, where its forces have been deployed since after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to help support operations in neighboring Afghanistan. The United States had said it would withdraw from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan once combat operations in Afghanistan were finished. Last month, however, Uzbekistan ordered U.S. troops to leave the country within 180 days. Kyrgyzstan's new administration called for a re-evaluation of the U.S. base in that country, but Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld later won assurances that American troops can stay for as long as they are needed to bring stability to Afghanistan. The United States said it has been advised of the exercises by both China and Russia, but isn't sending observers. "We expect that whatever activities take place would be ones that would further what we believe is everybody's shared goal of stability and peace in the region," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. "We would hope that anything that they do is not something that would be disruptive to the current atmosphere in the region."
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