U) PLA Update Issue 19, March 22, 2024

We then discuss several topics concerning the PLA’s overseas activities, including PLA Navy (PLAN) operations in the Gulf of Aden; a trilateral exercise between the navies of the PRC, Russia, and Iran; and the PLA Army’s (PLAA’s) participation in the US-Thailand multilateral exercise Cobra Gold. [...] A spokesperson of China’s Ministry of National Defense said in February that the NETF conducts “routine escort operations” in the Gulf of Aden and in waters off Somalia and that its deployment has “nothing to do with the current situation in the region.”19 Previously, Western media reported that the PLAN had in early 2024 begun providing escort support to PRC ships transiting the Red Sea. [...] One such report from the Voice of America cited data published on the website of the PRC shipping company Sea Legend.20 A plotting of the coordinates on the company’s website indicates, however, that the start and end points of PLAN escort operations are fully within the Gulf of Aden—the NETF’s traditional area of operations21—and do not enter the Red Sea (see figure below). [...] The three countries’ sailors reportedly integrated into mixed task detachments that boarded two Iranian ships playing the roles of hijacked merchant vessels.24 The three previous iterations of the trilateral Security Belt exercise series took place in 2019, 2022, and 2023 in the vicinity of the Gulf of Oman.25 Similar to PRC media reporting on past iterations of the exercise, reports on Security B. [...] The PLA Daily report cited remarks from the leader of the PLA delegation, who portrayed the exercise as a window to showcase the professionalism of the PLA and a platform to display a positive image of China as a major global power.29 5 WWW.