SpaceWar.com reports: “China and Russia conducted a joint naval patrol in the northern and western Pacific, Beijing’s defence ministry said Sunday, adding that the exercise was not ‘targeted’ at any other nation.

The two countries have drawn closer in recent years and tout their friendship as having ‘no limits’. Both share hostile relations with US-led Western defence alliance NATO.

Beijing has further strengthened its diplomatic, economic and military ties with Moscow since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

China, which has never condemned the invasion, maintains it is a neutral party to the conflict. But Western leaders have criticised it for giving political and economic support to Russia, including trade in goods that have both civilian and military uses.

‘According to the annual plan and the consensus between China and Russia, naval vessels of China and Russia recently carried out their fourth joint maritime patrol in the western and northern Pacific Ocean,’ the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

‘This operation is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation,’ it added…”