Joint exercises by Chinese and Russian naval troops entered the fifth day on Thursday, with joint escorting, anti-hijacking, and live fire drills in the Yellow Sea just west of the Korean Peninsula. The exercises focus on joint maritime air defense, anti-submarine tactics, maritime search and rescue and a joint effort to rescue hijacked vessels. Four warships from the Russian navy's Pacific fleet and three supply ships joined 16 Chinese surface ships in staging war games. Aircraft and special force units from the two countries were also deployed in an anti-terrorism task as part of the exercise. The war games were announced several weeks ago during the height of the rocket launch controversy in North Korea.
