China, Russia and Iran to hold joint naval exercises from Dec 27

China, Russia, and Iran are set to hold four-day long joint naval drills in Gulf of Oman starting December 27 as tensions soar between Tehran and Washington around 2015 nuclear pact. Chinese defence ministry reportedly said that exercise is aimed to deepen exchange and cooperation between navies of three countries.

Chinese defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian anunced that ir navy would deploy Xining guided-missile destroyer in drills. But he didn’t divulge any details regarding number of personnel and ships involved in trilateral exercise. Meanwhile, a senior armed forces spokesperson for Iran drills are aimed at bringing international commerce security in region and fighting terrorism and piracy.

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Relation of three nations with US

joint military exercise can be seen from prism of relations of United States with all three countries. While US Senate approved a defence bill to impose sanctions on companies working on Russia’s ambitious rd Stream 2 pipeline project under Baltic Sea, recent tre war with China me two countries align against Washington. Russian President Vlimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping h also recently inaugurated a 3000-kilometre gas pipeline from Siberia to China, called ‘Power of Siberia’.

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Iran, on or hand, is facing crippling sanctions from US after latter withdrew from Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), commonly kwn as Iran nuclear deal, citing flagrant violation of deal. After Iran anunced resumption of enrichment activities in an underground lab in Fordow, United States declared that it will lift sanction waivers for nuclear plant at site. Later, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that country was rey to hold nuclear talks with Washington if y lift “unlawful” sanctions. 

"I hereby anunce that whenever United States is rey to lift all illegal and unjust sanctions, Iran and P5+1 leers will meet right away, and we have problem in this regard," said Rouhani.

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(With inputs from ncies)