Chinese soldiers have landed in Belarus to take part in “anti-terror” military drills on the border with Poland.
Belarus’ Ministry of Defence said that the 11-day “joint anti-terrorist exercise” would start on Monday and “improve coordination between Belarusian and Chinese units”. Chinese media said the exercises would be held in Brest, on the Polish border.
Photographs from the Baranovichi air base on Saturday, about 100 miles south-west of Minsk, showed Chinese soldiers wearing forage caps as they unloaded their equipment from a single Xian Y-20, a heavy strategic airlifter nicknamed “Chubby Girl”.
They were greeted by a military brass band, which played as the Belarusian and Chinese commanders engaged in the custom of breaking a piece of bread.
China and Belarus count Russia as a mutual friend and since the invasion of Ukraine have edged closer together.
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, met Chinese leader Xi Jinping twice last year in a bid to expand trade ties and revive an economy crippled by Western sanctions over his support for Vladimir Putin’s war.
On Thursday, Belarus was admitted to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an economic-military group focused on Central Asia and headed by Beijing and Moscow. The SCO also includes Iran, India and Pakistan as members.
At the SCO summit in Kazakhstan, Mr Xi called on member states to “join hands to resist external interference” by increasing military and intelligence contact.
The Belarusian Ministry of Defence did not give further details about its joint exercises, but China’s state-run Global Times reported that they would be held at a training base near the EU border.
“China and Belarus will conduct joint military training near Brest,” it said. “Set against the backdrop of counterterrorism operations, this joint exercise will feature integrated training and mixed-unit drills.”
One of Belarus’ largest military training grounds is situated outside Brest on the eastern bank of the Bug River and opposite the small Polish town of Terespol.
Mr Lukashenko has resisted pressure from the Kremlin to join its invasion of Ukraine, but allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory as a launchpad for attacks on Kyiv in February and March 2022.
Since then, he has also accepted a deployment of Russian nuclear missiles in Belarus and has allowed Russian fighter jets to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities from Belarusian airspace.
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