China is strongly against any military actions that will stoke regional tensions, China's Ministry of National Defense said Thursday in response to joint military drills held by Japan and the US that started on August 21.

Geng Yansheng, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense, said that underlining the military safety agenda and intensifying regional tensions go against the goal of mutual trust among countries in the region.

"The comments from the defense ministry state clearly China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity," Peng Guangqian, a military expert at the PLA Academy of Military Science, told the Global Times.

"For the US, the drill is one part of their military alliance strategy and long-term ambition of maintaining strategic interests in the Asian-Pacific region. On the Japanese side, they want to improve their defense ability through the drill and show their military power to China with the help of the US," said Peng.

According to the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, Japan and the US have decided to hold a military drill on a number of islands, as relations between China and Japan deteriorated after Chinese activists landed on the Diaoyu Islands on August 15.

The joint drill will last for 37 days and will take place on islands from Okinawa to the Northern Mariana Islands, including Guam and Tinian Island, in the western pacific, NHK reported.