China is going to join Thailand's annual Cobra Gold military drills for the first time this year, a source at the Royal Thai Armed Forces told the Bangkok Post on Sunday. 

China's participation in the exercise was announced after the Thai armed forces cancelled a joint news conference on the games with U.S. diplomat Patrick Murphy on Sunday. The military did not give a reason for the scrapped briefing.

Like Us on Facebook

Around 4,000 Thai soldiers, 5,000 U.S. troops and 10,000 personnel from 20 other nations will combine forces in the 14-day exercise that is scheduled to begin next Monday at Thailand's Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School in Nakhon Nayok.

After being an observer of the yearly war games several times, China will take part in the training but it will be limited to the humanitarian side of the exercises and not combat operations.  Chinese forces are set to help with disaster relief exercises, the Post quoted a source as saying. 

China sought to join the Cobra Gold drills in the past. Thailand had recommended that the U.S. let China take part in the war games. South Korea and Japan also joined the event last year and, like China, participated in the humanitarian side of the training.

Thailand armed forces and its China counterpart have participated in several combined military training exercises, under the banner of the "Strikes" code-name, the report said.

A drill between the navies of China and Thailand was named Blue Strike while combined air force maneuvers are called Lightning Strike.

Over the weekend, China's defense minister is expected to meet with Thailand's defense chief, Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon. In the gathering, the two sides plan to iron out details of a possible military collaboration.

The two sides hinted they might also discuss China's sale of weapons to Thailand, a new arms system that China's defense ministry has been developing, and plan more combined military exercises, the Post reported. 

TagsThailand, Cobra War Games