The missile war games follow an August 2015 naval exercise between the two nations – dubbed Joint Sea II – held in international territorial waters in the Sea of Japan and off the coast of Russia's Primorsky territory – approximately 250 miles away from Japan. That exercise was the first ever joint Sino-Russian amphibious assault drill.

The announcement follows the meeting in Moscow last week between Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. The exercise also comes on the heels of NATO bolstering troop and armaments on the Russian border and an increasingly aggressive posturing by the U.S. towards China in the South China Sea.

The military chiefs' stressed that their ministries need to implement "greater unity and joint effort" to tackle modern security challenges during a press conference, with the defense ministries noting that the drills were not "aimed against any third nation.