China's new defence minister says his visit to Russia is a signal to the United States about the increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing.
The unusually bold statement yesterday by Gen. Wei Fenghe at the start of his talks with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reflected the growing military cooperation between the two former Communist rivals.
Speaking in Moscow, Wei emphasised that he chose Russia for his first trip abroad since becoming the international face of China's military last month to "show the world a high level of development of our bilateral relations and firm determination of our armed forces to strengthen strategic cooperation."
Wei added he would attend a security conference Wednesday hosted by the Russian Defence Ministry to "let the Americans know about the close ties between the armed forces of China and Russia."