Deputy Army Commander for Coordination Affairs Habibollah Sayyari said his country planned to hold more military exercises with Russia and China.
A trilateral naval exercise of Russia, China and Iran, codenamed Maritime Security Belt, began in the Gulf of Oman on December 27 and will continue until December 30. The active phase of the exercise began on Saturday.
‘We [Iran, Russia and China] will find a way to hold maneuvers in future," he said, adding that the three nations had no plans of creating a formal military coalition.
Sayyari warned other nations against interfering into the trilateral exercise.
"Any vessel or aircraft that enters the zone of maneuvers will be hit," he said.
The Baltic Fleet guard ship Yaroslav Mudry, the tanker Yelnya and the sea tug Viktor Konetsky participating in the Russia-Iran-China joint naval maneuvers have called at the Iranian port of Chabahar on December 27. On the following day, an official delegation of the Russian Navy took part in a planning conference.
During the joint maneuvers, the Russian, Iranian and Chinese Navy sailors will practice episodes to search and free a vessel seized by pirates, carry out joint maneuvering, render assistance to a ship in distress and hold exercises for the anti-terror protection of ships and vessels in an unsafe roadstead.