Russian, Chinese warships to leave Novorossiysk for Mediterranean drills

MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Russian and Chinese warships will leave Russia’s Black Sea naval base Novorossiysk on Tuesday and sail to the Mediterranean for the Joint Sea 2015 drills, Russian Navy spokesman Captain First Rank Igor Dygalo said. "Today, on May 12, Russian and Chinese combat ships will leave the quays of Hero City Novorossiysk and set the course for the designated area of the Russian-Chinese naval exercise Joint Sea 2015 in the Mediterranean," he said. The warships’ departure ceremony will be held in the evening at Novorossiysk quayside and will be attended, in particular, by Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Vice Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov and Chinese Navy Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Vice-Admiral Du Jinchen. China’s warships - the Linyi and Weifang escort vessels, as well as Samum missile-carrying hovercraft of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia will sail to the Mediterranean together via an approved route in the Black Sea, pass the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits and meet with the rest participants in the east part of the Mediterranean Sea. The active phase of the Joint Sea 2015 drills will be conducted on May 17 - 21. According to previous reports, it would involve about 10 Russian and Chinese combat ships. Russia and China have set up headquarters at Russia’s Novorossiysk naval base to exercise command and control over Joint Sea 2015 naval drills, Igor Dygalo said previously. "In order to exercise control over the Joint Sea 2015 drills, which will be held in the Mediterranean Sea in the second ten-day period of May, a joint command of the exercises has been set up along with the joint command headquarters and the headquarters of the grouping at sea and the command posts of the participating ships' tactical groups," the spokesman said. The joint command and its headquarters will be located at the Divnomorskoye coordination center near Novorossiysk. The headquarters of the combat ships’ grouping and the tactical groups’ command posts will be located aboard the ships, the Russian Navy spokesman said. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the joint drills would focus on the protection of navigation safety in the remote areas of the World Ocean. "The main aim of the exercises is to further deepen friendly and practical interaction between the two countries and strengthen joint efforts for countering naval security threats at sea," the ministry said. The Russia-China naval drills "are not aimed against any third country and have no relation to the political situation in the region," the Russian Defense Ministry said. The sailors will practice "maritime defense, maritime replenishment, escort actions, joint operations to safeguard navigation security as well as real weapon firing drill." Read more