NATO shouldn’t worry about China-Russia drill

China and Russia are joining forces for military exercises in the Baltic Sea from Friday till July 28. Three Chinese warships will blaze a trail in the first-ever joint operation in European inland waters. NATO and the West are casting a sensitive and strange look at the exercises. Many Western media outlets view the operation as an example of China flexing its military muscle globally.

The West is not used to seeing China's presence in the Baltic Sea, a traditional geopolitical forefront in Europe. The Baltic Sea has never been a closed region. But once China enters the area, some members of NATO would watch it suspiciously.   

In fact, China's intention of sending its warships to the Baltic Sea is very simple - boosting the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. The back-to-back strategic cooperation does not target any third party. But of course, if any third party is unfriendly toward China and Russia, they will feel invisible pressure of some sort. 

This is a time when China and NATO are most friendly to each other. This is also a time when China's comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia is continuing to develop. Moscow has never expressed discontent with the improving relationship between China and NATO. So NATO should not think too much about the joint military exercises.                        

The military cooperation between China and Russia is still preliminary and limited. Many Western media outlets call China and Russia "allies," and they know the expression is frivolous. Beijing and Moscow have no intention to forge an alliance in the traditional sense. The two countries wish to be partners but they want to keep away from forging an alliance and their stance is sincere.

The fact that the West is paranoid about the general joint military exercises reflects its fragility. Why is the powerful West so fragile? It is because their strategic squeeze on China and Russia is going too far. 

Many observers believe that if China and Russia are too close, they will form an unprecedented big power. But in fact the combined strength of China and Russia is still weaker than that of the West. China and Russia want to protect their own countries' interests and their wish is sincere and restrained. Today, the battlefronts of the two countries are not long. They are capable of protecting their own core interests. With their mutual support and back-to-back strategic posture, they have sufficient capability to safeguard their interests. 

It has been decades since the end of the Cold War. Revolutionary changes such as the deepening of globalization have taken place. But the West's prejudice against Beijing and Moscow still remains unchanged. The West's elbowing of China and Russia seems to be endless. We simply cannot understand why some Western forces are so obsessed with setting China and Russia as a target.

Russia is generally on the strategic defensive while China is a rare gentle rising power. Some in the West feel uncomfortable about the two countries, who are in fact not forging an alliance but only engaged in cooperation including joint military drills in the Baltic Sea. It is their own fault if they feel that way.

Chinese navy will surely get stronger and stronger and march further and further, which the West should get used to. China will not grab others' territory and seek to steal others' influence. Today, China's interest spreads all over the globe and China is activating its role that the sea has reserved for the Chinese people. China is far simpler than what Western public opinion claims. Many of China's developments have been achieved naturally. China has no wild ambition of outstretching around the world.