By Brian Han

Russia plans to commence joint military drills with the likes of North Korea and Cuba according to Russian armed forces Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

The statement was made public during a meeting on Saturday that featured leaders of all of Russia’s armed forces groups.

“We are planning an expansion of the communication lines of our military central command,” Gerasimov stated. “We are entering preliminary negotiations with the armed forces of Brazil, Vietnam, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. We are going to conduct a series of joint naval and air force exercises, as well as joint drills of our ground troops and air assault troops.”

According to the former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine Steven Pifer, Russia is developing these potential military partnerships as a response to its current international isolation.

North Korea’s involvement may be a tactical response to the repeated denial of its requests regarding the discontinuation of joint U.S. and South Korean military drills off the peninsula’s coast.

As for Russia, the country’s president stated last week that he planned to expand arms trade to Asia, Africa and Latin America according to Newsweek.