China, Russia and Mongolia team up for first-ever border defence drill

Three neighbours staged exercise aimed at cracking down on ‘terrorist sabotage activities in border areas’, PLA says

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The “Border Defence Cooperation 2025” exercise is held in China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, near the border with Russia and Mongolia. Photo: CCTV

Published: 8:00pm, 9 Sep 2025

The People’s Liberation Army announced on Tuesday that China, Russia and Mongolia had conducted their first ever joint border defence exercise, named “Border Defence Cooperation 2025”.

The exercise, held from September 8 to 9 near Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia autonomous region along the China-Russia-Mongolia border, focused on “joint prevention and crackdown on terrorist sabotage activities in border areas”, the PLA said on social media.

It is the first time that the border defence forces of the three countries have organised such a drill together.

Footage released by the PLA across social media platforms showed battlefield reconnaissance radars, drones and robotic dogs deployed during the exercise.

Zheng Zhongwen, a border defence brigade officer of the Northern Theatre Command, said in a voice-over that the troops employed “multiple modern surveillance methods, including battlefield reconnaissance television, radar, drones and unmanned ground vehicles”.

These technologies not only strengthened the troops’ border control capabilities but also improved their ability to apply advanced tools for frontier management, Zheng added.

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