China and Belarus have announced joint military training exercises near the border of Poland, a NATO and European Union member. The drills, set to last for 11 days, involve troops from China's People's Liberation Army and are focused on enhancing training levels and coordination capabilities between the two countries' armies.
The exercises, which include activities such as hostage rescue operations and counter-terrorism missions, are being held near the Belarus city of Brest, just 130 miles from Warsaw, Poland's capital, and 40 miles from Minsk's border with Ukraine.
NATO and the EU have raised concerns about Belarus weaponizing its border by pushing asylum-seekers to its borders. The joint military exercises, seen by some as a provocation, coincide with NATO's 75th-anniversary summit in Washington, D.C., and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Poland.
Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has been accused of aiding Moscow in its conflict with Ukraine. The Chinese troops arrived in Belarus shortly after the country joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security bloc founded in 2001 to combat terrorism and promote border security.
The SCO, which includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, has evolved into a geopolitical counterweight to Western institutions led by the United States and its allies. The joint military exercises between China and Belarus signal a deepening of practical cooperation between the two nations' armies.
