The Chinese Ministry of National Defence wrote on its website on Sunday that the exercises, which will take place near the western town of Brest and have been dubbed ‘Eagle Assault,’ “are in accordance with this year's plan and a mutual agreement between the two countries.”

Images shared by Belarus’s defense ministry on Facebook showed the Chinese troops arriving on Saturday, mentioning that the military operations will last from July 8 to 19.

At a press briefing on Friday, Vladimir Kupriyanyuk, the deputy head of the general staff of Belarus’s armed forces, said that the joint exercise was a response to “the aggressive foreign policy of the West towards the Union State of Belarus and Russia.”

“In general, given the growing presence of special forces, mercenaries and various volunteer formations at the border areas, there is a high probability of preparing and carrying out armed provocations on our territory,” Kupriyanyuk said.

The arrival of Chinese troops follows Belarus’ official entry to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization led by China and Russia, further deepening their coordination on military, economic and political matters. In April this year, the authoritarian Belarus leader, Alexander Lukashenko, agreed to allow Russia to deploy dozens of tactical nuclear weapons on Belarus’ territory.

This development happens to come just two weeks after Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, visited Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, where he hailed Polish-Chinese relations, saying that he was “very happy that President [Xi] calls me a friend.”

Radosław Pyffel, international affairs and China expert, told Polish news outlet wPolityce.pl that “one thing is certain… there have never in history been Chinese troops so close to the Polish border.”

He continued: “Even if this is only an (interesting, but not very sharp militarily) maneuver, there are new variants in the development of the situation which will probably have to be taken into account… Welcome to the new world.”