Russia and China will hold a massive joint military exercise on Chinese territory in late 2005 involving state-of-the-art weapons, Russia's defense minister said Monday as the two nations move to bolster burgeoning military ties.

"For the first time in history, we have agreed to hold quite a large military exercise together with China on Chinese territory in the second half of the year," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a cabinet session chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

"The Russian side will not bring big numbers of servicemen, but mostly state-of-the art weapons - navy, air, long-range aviation, submarines - to practice interaction with China in different forms of military maneuvers."

The Associated Pressed quoted some Western observers in an report as saying that Russia could respond to the falling out with the West over Ukraine's presidential election farce by trying to forge a closer partnership with China and India.

During his visit to India earlier this month, Putin pushed for a trilateral summit with leaders of India and China and assailed US "dictatorship of international affairs," said the AP report.

(Chinadaily.com.cn December 28, 2004)