Chinese naval forces will join warships from Iran and Russia in a trilateral exercise near Iran this week, according to authorities from all three nations.
The joint naval exercises will take place March 11 to March 15 in the Gulf of Oman near Iran’s port of Chabahar. They follow similar drills that took place a year ago.
The warship activities will include simulated attacks on maritime targets as part of the annual Security Belt 2025 exercises, the Chinese Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
Chinese naval forces for the exercise will include one of the People’s Liberation Army navy’s most advanced guided missile destroyers, the Luyang III-class Baotu, and a supply ship. The warships are part of the PLA navy’s task force engaged in regular anti-piracy escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and waters off the coast of Somalia.
The area of the exercises is a critical chokepoint between the Strait of Hormuz and the Indian Ocean, one that is used for large shipments of oil and other goods.
Iran’s state-run Tasnim news agency said the three-nation naval exercises highlight deepening “military trust and pragmatic cooperation” among China, Iran and Russia, all countries hostile to the U.S.
Tasnim said Chinese and Russian warships and combat and support vessels will participate, along with warships of the Iranian navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the regime’s ideological forces.
Andrew S. Erickson, a China expert with the Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute, said the exercises highlight Beijing’s effort to expand its power and influence.
“This shows Beijing’s true priorities in the region, which are relentlessly mercantilist and geopolitical,” he said.
“Despite sending 47 task forces and counting involving more than 150 ships and 30,000 personnel to the Gulf of Aden since 26 December 2008, China has not prioritized international public goods provision but has rather remained cynically self-interested.”
China also did not use its regional forces to address Houthi attacks against international shipping in the vital Red Sea waterway, he said.
The joint drills also come amid heightened tensions between Washington and both China and Iran – over Taiwan for Beijing and over U.S. sanctions opposed by Tehran.
President Trump is stepping up economic pressure on Iran aimed to curbing Iranian oil exports and threatening seizures of Iranian tankers and ships, but has also made an early overture to the Islamic republic for talks on Iran’s suspect nuclear programs. It was Mr. Trump in his first four-year term who pulled the U.S. out of the multilateral Iran nuclear deal designed to curb Iran’s nuclear efforts in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Mr. Trump said on Fox Business Channel Friday that he wrote to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali urging nuclear negotiations or face U.S. military action.
“If we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” Mr. Trump said. “You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
The ayatollah last month ruled out talks with Washington after Mr. Trump reimposed the “maximum pressure” sanctions policy from his first term. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also rejected Mr. Trump’s latest offer for talks, saying Tehran would not be bullied by American threats.
“We will NOT negotiate under pressure and intimidation,” Mr. Arragchi said in a post on X Monday. “We will NOT even consider it, no matter what the subject may be.”
The regional naval drills also follow continuing provocative PLA navy and military activities around Taiwan, including large exercises in December, and recent live-fire naval drills near Australia.
China is engaged in expanding military activities around the world as part of Beijing’s push to promote its communist system as an alternative to the U.S.-led democratic and free market global order.
Regarding Taiwan, a Chinese military spokesman said Sunday that the PLA is prepared to choke the self-ruled island over concerns it is achieving formal independence.
“The more rampant Taiwan independence separatists become, the tighter the noose around their necks and the sharper the sword hanging over their heads will be,” Sr. Col. Wu Qian said in an interview published by state broadcaster CCTV.
The latest trilateral exercises also will take place amid growing military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow. Russian and Chinese coast guard ships conducted a joint patrol in the Bering Sea near Alaska in October.
In July, Chinese and Russian bombers conducted a joint patrol, also near Alaska, that prompted U.S. and Canadian jets to intercept the aircraft. A year before, 11 Chinese and Russian warships sailed near Alaska as well.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces for the Gulf of Oman exercise will include two missile corvettes and a fuel tanker.
The ministry stated in a post on the social media app Telegram that the head of the Russian naval forces for the exercise, Rear Adm. Alexei Sysuev, is in Iran for the drills.
Russia-Iran cooperation also is increasing, including in the military sphere. Tehran has supplied low-cost armed drones for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In January, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a cooperation agreement covering both trade and military exchanges.
