Recently, the Russian defense department said to the outside world that Russian warships and Chinese warships held a joint maritime military exercise codenamed "Sea of Peace 2022" in the Arabian Sea to exercise "inspection and rescue of hijacked ships"; the relevant departments of our side also said that the exercise has enhanced the ability and level of the Chinese and Russian militaries to jointly deal with maritime threats and maintain the safety of strategic passages at sea; the location of the Sino-Russian "Sea of Peace 2022" maritime joint military exercise is in the northern waters of the Arabian Sea, and Russia's participation in the exercise is "Varyag". Cruisers, the destroyer Admiral Tributs, and the cruise ship Rees Boutoma, our warships participating in the exercise are the destroyers Urumqi and the supply ships Taihu; in addition, it should be pointed out that the Chinese and Russian warships that launched the joint exercise this time are actually related ships that participated in the Sino-Russian-Iranian trilateral joint maritime exercise held in Man Bay in the Gulf from 18 to 20.
Sino-Russian joint military exercises in the Arabian Sea are still quite rare, the Arabian Sea is part of the Indian Ocean, connecting South Asia, Central Asia and East Africa, and connecting the Mediterranean And Europe through the Suez Canal, so it is actually the crossroads of Eurasia and Africa; the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Sea is the entrance to the Middle East and the largest source of oil energy in the world, and the Red Sea Strait is the connection channel between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, so Arabia is one of the most important strategic shipping routes in the world; it is also based on this. The United States, which has global hegemony, attaches great importance to the operation and control of the Arabian Sea, and the military deployment of the United States in the Middle East is actually around the two major straits (persian gulf strait and red sea strait) along the arabian sea coast and a large passage (mediterranean sea to Indian ocean), and it can be said that the Arabian sea has long been the key layout direction and strong control area of the United States.
It is also based on this that, in fact, the joint military exercise between China and Russia in the Arabian Sea has revealed two unusual signals, or two major strategic significance:
(1) Maintain strategic shipping lanes; at present, whether it is the mainland's commercial waterways or energy waterways, they are closely linked to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, especially with the opening of the Gwadar Port on the east coast of the Arabian Sea, as well as the opening of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor built around this port, the Arab Sea and our interests are getting closer and closer, so maintaining and ensuring the stability of the Arabian Sea region has increasingly become an important demand for safeguarding our interests; in addition, the Arabian Sea as the starting point of the Indian Ocean shipping route, The security and stability of the Arabian Sea affect the security and stability of the entire Indian Ocean energy and commercial shipping lanes, so it is obvious that our side needs to take the initiative to enter the Arabian Sea to maintain the security and stability of the Sea; in addition, with the deepening of our overseas interests, especially in the direction of Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia, this in itself forces our side to let our own maritime defense forces go out and enter the Arabian Sea to safeguard its own practical interests.
(2) Opening up new battlefields, joint partners, and the sword refers to the military layout of the United States in the Arabian Sea; as we all know, the United States is constantly strengthening its containment efforts against China and Russia, which makes China and Russia face common challenges; the Arabian Sea and the Middle East region have always been the traditional areas of the United States-Russia struggle, and our side has always been more restrained in the region, but as the United States began to build a broader "Indo-Pacific strategy", the Indian Ocean and Arabia were also included in the game field of containment and suppression of our side. This is obviously also forcing our side to take the initiative to go out and enter the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea region to divide its circle of allies and break the strategic encirclement.
Therefore, this bilateral joint military exercise at sea, as well as the Sino-Russian-Iranian trilateral Gulf of Oman maritime exercise that ended on the 20th, is undoubtedly a new weather vane -- reflecting that china has begun to actively open up new battlefields and has begun to choose to take the initiative to go out and enter the Arabian Sea and the Middle East, and will suppress the defense layout built by the United States in the region and break through the "Indo-Pacific strategy" military and geopolitical containment circle built by the United States by expanding the circle of friends and expanding regional geopolitical influence; of course, Since the Middle East and the Arabian Sea region are the traditional geopolitical game areas between the United States and Russia, this also means that the sino-Russian cooperation is constantly deepening, and the two sides have begun to actively explore the Arabian Sea and the Middle East.