The Joint Sea 2019 Russian-Chinese bilateral naval exercise has kicked off at the Chinese port of Qingdao, says press center of RF Defence Ministry.
The Russian detachment is made up of the cruiser Varyag, large ASW ships Admiral Vinogradov and Admiral Tributs, corvette Sovershenny, large amphibious ship Oslyabya, rescue boat Igor Belousov and mid-size sea tanker Irkut.
The ceremony was held at the base headquarters of the People's Liberation Army Navy. It was attended by Deputy Commander of the Russian Navy Aleksandr Vitko and Deputy Commander of the PLA Navy Vice Admiral Ding Yiping who supervise the drills.
The coastal part of the exercise is to take place on April 29-30. Ships will practise missions at sea on May 1-4.