Russia and China practice 'capturing a submarine' in joint military drills

Russia and China have completed naval drills in the East China Sea, after a week of joint exercises which included practising how to capture an enemy submarine with depth charges and firing artillery at a warship, Russia's defence ministry said.

The 21-27 December exercises, entitled "Maritime Interaction-2022", included Russia's Pacific Fleet and were carried out in waters off Zhoushan and Taizhou in China's Zhejiang Province, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said.

"Detachments of warships of the Pacific Fleet and the Naval Forces of the People's Liberation Army of China have completed practical tasks within the framework of the bilateral naval exercise," Russia's defence ministry said.

"The ships of the two countries, with the support of anti-submarine aviation, jointly searched for a submarine of a conditional enemy and fired a volley of jet depth charges," the ministry said.

The ministry published video showing a group of Russian and Chinese warships in the East China Sea, with Russian sailors speaking in Mandarin to their Chinese counterparts and Russian ships firing missiles.

Once the leader among the world's communist countries, Russia, after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, is now a junior partner to a resurgent China which already leads in some 21st-century technologies.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to speak to President Vladimir Putin before the end of the year, TASS news agency said.