Joint Drill to Start in Indian Ocean Saturday

China, Iran, Russia to Showcase Alignment

Date: 25 December 2019 - 22:20

News ID: ۷۴۳۸۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran’s armed forces will hold a joint, four-day naval exercise with Russia and China in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The drill, which is to start on Saturday, will be the first such trilateral exercise as Tehran seeks to boost military cooperation with Beijing and Moscow amid unprecedented economic sanctions from Washington. Visits to Iran by Russian and Chinese naval representatives have also stepped up in recent years.
Iranian military spokesman Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi said the joint maneuvers, which are aimed at promoting regional security, will extend as far as the Sea of Oman. The drill is seen as a response to recent U.S. maneuvers with its regional ally Saudi Arabia.
In the wake of recent escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf, including suspicious attacks on oil vessels, the U.S. has sent a number of American troops to the region and additional missile defense systems to Saudi Arabia.
Washington alleges that Iran carried out the September attack on the world’s largest oil processor in the kingdom and an oil field, which caused oil prices to spike by the biggest percentage since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Iran has denied this and warned that any attack targeting it would result in an "all-out war”.
Observers see the exercise, dubbed "Marine Security Belt”, as a message by Iran to the U.S.
"To prepare for any eventuality, it is important that the Persian Gulf waters are secured, and that’s exactly what Iran, with the help of its allies, is doing,” Muhammad Jafari, a strategic affairs analyst, told Anadolu Agency.
In 2017, Iran conducted a joint naval exercise with China near the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, a passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea.
Although the naval drill has been under discussion for a while, the three countries have timed it impeccably, in response to the U.S. administration’s "maximum pressure” policy against Iran.
The U.S. recently formed a maritime coalition, joined by Australia, Britain, the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, in a bid to mount pressure on Iran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in response, flouted the idea of a regional peace plan, urging all countries along the Strait of Hormuz, as well as China and Russia, to join it.
His outspoken Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif said the naval drill should not be viewed as a "display of hostility” to any other country but as an exercise to ensure safe waters.
The participation of China and Russia in the naval drill is significant given that Moscow has been Tehran’s all-weather strategic ally, while Beijing is the largest buyer of Iranian oil.
Ali Ahmadi, a geopolitical analyst focusing on Iran-U.S. relations, told Anadolu coordination among Asian and Eurasian countries has tremendous potential for positive security gains in the region.
"It doesn’t challenge U.S. hegemony worldwide. But right now, it limits America’s strategic options and capabilities in most of Asia and northern Africa,” he said.
"China, Russia and Iran have many commonalities on interests but they need a deeper dialogue to consolidate their relationship into a real strategic alliance,” he said.
Mani Mehrabi, an international affairs analyst, called the drill a "show of strength” by Iran and its allies in the wake of naval tension between Iran and UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
"Iran is changing its military defense tactic and wants to send a message to the West that its maritime defense borders are expanding, which is why the Persian Gulf region has not been chosen for the exercise,” he said.
According to Washington-based online magazine The Diplomat, "the geopolitical underpinnings of the trilateral group are quite evident: all the three maintain a rather hostile relationship with the United States and have proven increasingly willing to take cooperative actions in the security realm to illustrate their own capabilities.”
"The coming together of China, Iran, and Russia itself is a major strategic development,” the publication wrote.
China, Iran, and Russia all have an incentive to use the trilateral naval exercise to showcase their growing alignment, it said.
The trilateral naval exercise is to send a strategic message that the three participating countries have "reached a meaningful strategic point in their relations, with regard to their shared and non-shared interests,” it added.