China, Russia, Mongolia step up security ties with border exercise

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of Chinese service members via Grey Dynamics

BEIJING  -  China, Russia and Mongolia held their first joint border defence drills this week, the Chinese military said on Tuesday, underscoring closer security coordination among the three neighbours.

The exercise, called "Border Defence Cooperation - 2025", took place on Monday and Tuesday in an unidentified border region shared by the three countries, the People's Liberation Army said in a post on its official Weibo account.

The live drills aimed to "enhance strategic cooperation among the three sides, strengthen the ability to deal with border security threats, and further consolidate strategic mutual trust," the military said.

During the exercises, a joint command post was set up on Chinese territory operating under the principle of "whoever's territory, that side takes the lead, with multilateral consultation and parallel command," the Weibo post said.

The manoeuvres came on the heels of a trilateral meeting among leaders of the three countries in Beijing on September 2, a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit as he pushed for a new global security and economic order.

Mongolia has refrained from joining the SCO, choosing to be an observer state since 2004 even as other nations such as India, Pakistan and Iran became full-fledged members.

Beijing has continued to nudge its smaller neighbour to take up membership in the grouping of 10 nations. 

 (Reporting by Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jamie Freed // REUTERS)