Russia, China move to boost military ties

Russia, China move to boost military ties

Beijing plans to build new nuclear plants

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin of Russia has announced plan to boost military cooperation with China, including holding more joint exercises, after the United States (U.S.) said it would shift most of its warships to the Asia-Pacific by 2020.

However, China’s main developer of nuclear power plants said it plans to raise money with an initial public offering to pay for a 173.5 billion yuan ($27 billion) programme to build or expand five nuclear power plants, China National Nuclear Power Corp. said in a statement.

Agency reports indicated that nuclear expansions were suspended following Japan’s nuclear disaster last year.

The statement, dated Tuesday, said the share sale will take place in China but gave no timetable or a fundraising target. There was no indication whether the share sale has been approved by securities regulators.

China has ambitious plans to have more than 100 reactors operating by 2020 to help curb surging demand for coal and imported oil and gas.

Meanwhile, Putin referred to recent Sino-Russian joint navy exercises in the Yellow Sea, as an example of military cooperation which, he said, would go on.

“We will continue cooperation also between our military,” he told Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where he is attending a security summit and meeting his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao.

“Recently joint navy exercises were held in the Yellow Sea, and they were the first of such exercises. We have agreed with Chairman Hu that we will continue such cooperation,” Putin said.

Chinese and Russian naval forces held six days of exercises in the Yellow Sea off China’s east coast in April, with drills including anti-submarine operations and the rescue of hijacked vessels.

China deployed 16 ships and two submarines, while Russia sent four warships from its Pacific fleet, according to Chinese state media.

“We assign an important role to the joint initiative on strengthening security in the Asia-Pacific region and in this context, we will maintain the relationship between our militaries,” Putin said in an earlier statement.