China, Russia and Iran hold 'power projection' naval drill in Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea

Dr Neil Melvin, director of international security studies at the Rusi think tank in London, said the exercise was part of a “long-term pattern where these three countries have been working much more closely together”. “It’s not an alliance exactly but there is there is an increasing level of coordination that we see,” he told The National. “It’s also a signal to the West that they are not the only powers in town in an area which is strategically significant.”