Russia and China have conducted their first-ever joint submarine patrol in the Pacific, according to reports in state-run media.
The patrol by diesel-electric submarines began in early August, and the Russian sub involved, the Volkhov, covered around 2,000 miles during its voyage from its Vladivostok base, according to a statement from the Russian Pacific Fleet.
The subs patrolled in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, the statement said.
China has not confirmed the patrol, but the state-run Global Times mentioned it in a report Wednesday, citing the Russian reports.
“The first joint submarine patrol indicated a high level of strategic mutual trust between China and Russia. Having submarines keeping in contact requires not only higher technical expertise but also more in-depth exchanges,” the Global Times quoted a Chinese military expert, Zhang Junshe, as saying.
“Through the joint drills and patrols, the Chinese and Russian navies are steadily boosting their capabilities in jointly safeguarding maritime security and stability,” Zhang told Global Times.
China and Russia have been stepping up military cooperation in the past several years.
In 2021, in a voyage billed as the first joint China-Russia naval patrol in the western Pacific, a flotilla of 10 Chinese and Russian warships made a circumnavigation of Japan’s main island.
Joint patrols have occurred annually since.
TASS reported Wednesday that the goal of the patrols “is to strengthen naval cooperation between the two countries, ensure peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, monitor the maritime area and protect Russian and Chinese maritime economic facilities.”
Beijing and Moscow have also been expanding the range of their cooperation. Joint air and sea patrols have occurred off Alaska since 2023, including a joint patrol of four China Coast Guard vessels and two Russian Border Guard vessels patrolling in the Bering Sea near the US-Russia maritime border last year, according to a US Coast Guard release.
In a separate action, the US Coast Guard said earlier this month it was monitoring the activities of five Chinese research ships in US Arctic waters.
Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has responded to at least four flights of Russian surveillance planes into the Alaska air defense identification zone in the past week, according to statements from the command.
“This Russian activity in the Alaskan ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat,” a NORAD statement said.
But a review of NORAD releases shows four flights in a week to be unusual. Russian aircraft have been tracked in the ADIZ in single instances in July and April and twice in February this year, according to NORAD statements.
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