WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — China is staging army drills with Belarus this week at the eastern border of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in a sign of escalating tensions between Beijing and the United States-led defense alliance.

The joint “antiterrorist” exercises on Russian ally Belarus’s soil near the Polish border come as NATO leaders gather for a summit in Washington, with the war in nearby Ukraine high on their agenda.

With relations between NATO on the one hand and China and Russia on the other at a low ebb, analysts believe that Beijing wanted to send the alliance a warning message with the timing of the drills.

Sino-Belarusian exercises have taken place before, but this is the first time since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

The exercises began 8 July in Brest, a city right on the border with Poland, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Chinese defense ministry.

The statement said the maneuvers will last until mid-July, but did not give the exact number of Chinese soldiers involved.

Both sides are working to “improve combat techniques and deepen cooperation and communication between the two armies,” the statement added.

Chinese diplomatic officials insisted that the exercises were “not aimed at any country in particular.”