China and Russia are working on a joint invasion of Taiwan, US intelligence officials have claimed.
'We see China and Russia, for
the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognising that
this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them,
and we see no reason why they wouldn't,' Avril Haines, Director of US National
Intelligence, told the US Congress on Thursday.
Her warning on the potential
cooperation between the countries on Taiwan, which China has long claimed as
its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary, was echoed by Lieutenant
General Jeffrey Kruse.
He said that the US Defence
Department has 'become even more concerned about our joint force requirements
in an environment where [Russia and China] would certainly be cooperative, and
we need to take that into account,' Bloomberg reports.
A potential joint invasion of
Taiwan was raised in the meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee by
Republican Senator Mike Rounds, who asked the head of the Defence Intelligence
Agency about the Pentagon's plans should an invasion happen.
Haines said that there seems to
be an 'increasing cooperation in the "no-limits" partnership' between
Russia and China.
This comes as Chinese leader Xi
Jinping is expected to make his first trip to Europe next week as part of
China's efforts to rebuild its foreign relations.
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