Russian President Vladimir Putin today warned the United States against trying to outdo Moscow in Asiaas he inaugurated Russia’s largest naval schools in the post-Soviet era, in which China also participates.

Putin said Russia must be ready for any development and accused Washington of fomenting an arms race. He said, in particular, that the United States is preparing to deploy short- and medium-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region.

Russian and Chinese warships began exercises today as part of major naval training exercises, which Moscow announced would stretch from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that four Chinese warships and a supply vessel had joined Russian vessels in Peter the Great Bay, south of Vladivostok, for exercises “to defend maritime communications and areas of maritime economic activity”.

According to the Russian ministry, these exercises are part of much wider exercises involving more than 400 Russian warships, submarines and support vessels, which will be held until September 16 in the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin would watch the launch of the high schools today from the Kremlin’s operations center and that the drills would be expanded to several oceans with the participation of foreign partners.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported yesterday, Monday, that the aim of the high schools with Russia is to deepen “the level of military coordination between the Chinese and Russian armed forces and expand their ability to jointly respond to threats for safety”.