Global Courant 2023-05-25 16:29:09
The country’s defense ministry says Russian “intelligence-gathering” aircraft have been spotted near the Pacific and Sea of Japan coasts.
Japan scrambled fighter jets after spotting Russian “intelligence-gathering” planes off coasts along the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Japan on Thursday, the country’s defense ministry has said.
One Russian plane traveled from northern Japan along part of the western coast, while the other took a similar route along the other coast and returned via the same route, the Defense Ministry’s joint staff office said in a brief statement.
“In response, Northern Air Force fighter jets from the Air Self-Defense Force and other units were shaken,” it added.
There was no further information on the incident, which comes days after Japan hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the summit of the Group of Seven (G7) – a grouping of rich countries – in the city of Hiroshima.
Japan has joined Western allies in sanctioning Moscow for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and has warned of the threat posed by Russia.
The latest security document, which once called for closer ties and cooperation with Russia, now warns that Moscow’s military stance in Asia and cooperation with China pose “a major security concern”.
Last May, Chinese and Russian military jets conducted joint flights near Japan immediately after a meeting of the US-led Quad group in Tokyo. India and Australia are other members of Quad.
And more recently, Moscow has conducted military exercises, including missile firing, in the Sea of Japan.
Russia considers Japan a “hostile” country – a designation it shares with all European Union countries, the US and its allies, including the UK and Australia.
Tokyo had complex relations with Moscow before the invasion of Ukraine in February, and the two sides have yet to sign a post-World War II peace treaty.
Attempts to do so have been hampered by a long-running dispute over islands controlled by Russia, which they call the Kuril Islands.
