Japanese Defense Minister, Minoru Kiharasaid Tuesday that Japan is “closely monitoring” military activities by China and Russia following recent violations of its airspace by the two neighbors.
“In order to protect the territory at sea and in the air, the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces (Army) are closely monitoring the military movements of China and Russia,” Kihara said at the press conference following the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Kihara’s comments come a day after a Russian military aircraft flew into the airspace north of the archipelago.while Russia and China are conducting joint maneuvers in the area.
Between 13:00 and 15:00 local time (06:00 and 08:00 Spanish peninsular time), the Russian Ilyushin Il-38 maritime patrol aircraft entered the airspace near the Japanese island of Rebun, located in the Sea of Japan and close to the northern island of Hokkaido, to which Japan sent a diplomatic protest to Moscow.
Japan responded to the incursion by deploying its Air Self-Defense Force fighters.who fired a flare to warn Russian planes of their intrusion, a measure Kihara described as “harsh” but “appropriate.”
The violation of Japanese airspace occurred on the same day that joint naval exercises conducted by China and Russia in the Sea of Japan entered their second phase, during which warships from both countries began live-fire training.
Last August, a Chinese military intelligence plane briefly violated Japanese national airspace. off the islands of Nagasaki Prefecture (southwest), marking the first such violation in the archipelago by an aircraft from the Asian giant.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa expressed the same concern expressed by Kihara to her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during a meeting they held the day before in New York, as part of the United Nations General Assembly being held in that American city.
Numerous military activities by China and Russia have taken place around the disputed Senkaku Islands. (administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, which calls them Diaoyu), or as in Monday’s case, in northern Japan, where the Kurils are located.
Four islands of the Kuril archipelago, consisting of 56 islands and islets, were occupied by Russia during World War II and the dispute over their sovereignty is the main obstacle to bilateral relations.
In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a declaration reestablishing diplomatic relations and establishing rules that the parties would follow for the signing of the peace treaty, which included a provision for the return of two of the islands, although this has not been realized since then.
