Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Russian foreign weaponry deals, a possible Israeli incursion into Lebanon, and China’s rare intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Drone Development
Russia has established a weapons program in China to develop long-range attack drones for its war against Ukraine, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of the project, adding that Beijing maintains a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and has strict control measures on drone exports.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Russian foreign weaponry deals, a possible Israeli incursion into Lebanon, and China’s rare intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Sign up to receive World Brief in your inbox every weekday.
Sign up to receive World Brief in your inbox every weekday.
Drone Development
Russia has established a weapons program in China to develop long-range attack drones for its war against Ukraine, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of the project, adding that Beijing maintains a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and has strict control measures on drone exports.
If confirmed, this would be the first noted instance of Chinese companies providing Moscow with whole weapons systems. Beijing has previously supplied the Kremlin with dual-use goods, such as components that can be used to develop weapons systems.
Citing documents that it reviewed as well as two unnamed sources from a European intelligence agency, Reuters reported that IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned weapons company Almaz-Antey, has developed and tested Garpiya-3 (G3) drones in China with the help of local Chinese specialists. G3 drones can travel more than 1,200 miles with a payload of roughly 110 pounds. Kupol has also delivered seven military drones made in China, including two G3s, to the Russian city of Izhevsk, where the company is headquartered.
A White House National Security Council spokesperson said Washington was deeply concerned about the report but that the United States has not seen anything yet to suggest that the Chinese government was aware of the project.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow hopes to increase the number of drones produced this year tenfold to reach nearly 1.4 million, up from around 140,000 drones delivered to Russian forces in 2023. And on Wednesday, he announced in an update to the country’s nuclear doctrine that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation backed by a nuclear power would be seen as a joint attack.
As the Kremlin seeks to bolster its own arsenal, Iran is reportedly trying to get Russia to help arm Middle Eastern militant groups targeting Israel. On Tuesday, regional officials told Reuters that Iran has brokered secret talks between Moscow and Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels to transfer dozens of advanced anti-ship missiles to the militant group. Delegates from both sides convened in Tehran at least twice this year, and further meetings in the Iranian capital are expected in the coming weeks.
Any efforts to bolster the Houthis’ weapons capabilities would “undermine the shared international interest in global freedom of navigation and stability in the Red Sea and broader Middle East,” a U.S. Defense Department official warned. The Houthis have repeatedly targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea to support Hamas’s war against Israel.
Russian-Houthi talks have reportedly centered on Yakhont missiles, which have a range of roughly 186 miles and can skim the sea’s surface at more than twice the speed of sound to avoid detection and interception. Russia has previously supplied the Yakhont missile to Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran, but has yet to decide whether to do the same for the Houthis. Houthi spokesperson Mohamed Abdel-Salam said the group has “no knowledge” of the allegations, and Iran and Russia refused to comment.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Future advance. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel’s chief of the general staff, told Israeli troops on Wednesday to prepare for a possible ground incursion into Lebanon, which could see the conflict with Hezbollah erupt into a full-scale war. Already, more than 560 people have been killed and another 1,850 injured in Lebanon since Israeli bombardments escalated on Monday. The Israeli military also called two reserve units to northern Israel on Wednesday for operational missions.
Cross-border attacks continued on Wednesday, with Israeli forces targeting more than 280 Hezbollah-linked sites across Lebanon, killing at least 51 people and wounding more than 220 others. Halevi told Israeli forces that these strikes were to help “prepare the terrain for the possibility of your incursion.”
Halevi’s statement came mere hours after Israeli forces intercepted a Hezbollah-launched, Iranian-made ballistic missile aimed at Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv. This was the first time that a missile fired by the militant group has come close to the city, demonstrating how deep into Israeli territory it can hit, and the first time that Hezbollah is believed to have fired a ballistic missile at Israel.
China’s ICBM test. China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) carrying a dummy warhead into international waters on Wednesday. This was Beijing’s first international ICBM test in more than 40 years, though the Chinese People’s Liberation Army called it a “routine part” of annual exercises. The missile landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Beijing has roughly 134 ICBMs, according to estimates from a 2024 report by the Federation of American Scientists—just under half of what the United States and Russia each have.
Foreign leaders denounced the launch. “China’s military activities lack transparency, and that has become a serious concern for Japan and the international community,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said. Tokyo said it did not receive prior notice of the test.
New rules for statehood. Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo urged the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to permanently recognize the small island nation’s maritime boundaries and statehood to protect its existence in the face of climate change.
To do so, though, the U.N. would have to change international law. Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, there must be dry land for a country to claim statehood. However, rising sea levels are sinking island countries such as Tuvalu. NASA scientists predict that daily tides will submerge half of Tuvalu’s main atoll, home to 60 percent of its population, by 2050.
By securing recognition of its sovereignty even as its territory submerges, the country hopes to protect its culture. “The existential threat that we face is not of our making, but it will remake us,” Teo said, adding that major powers must listen to the nearly 1 billion people living in low-lying nations. Already, many locals from Tuvalu have fled to Australia under a new immigration deal signed last year to escape the loss of their land.
Odds and Ends
There’s compawtition—er, competition—in the air at No. 10 Downing Street. After “long negotiations” with his children, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed a purr-fect new friend, a Siberian kitty named Prince, to the home of British government last Saturday. But not everyone was thrilled with Starmer’s new furry friend. “My position as best looking cat on Downing Street remains unchallenged,” wrote Larry the Cat, the institution’s long-standing, four-legged fixture. Larry the Cat, officially Britain’s chief mouser, has been at Downing since February 2011.
The post Russia’s Secret Drone Project in China appeared first on Foreign Policy.
