Russia lodges protest over Japan’s upcoming military drills

Moscow: Russia lodged a strong protest with Japan over Tokyo’s plan to conduct anti-ship missile drills near Russia’s borders, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russia lodged a protest with the Japanese Embassy in Moscow over Japan’s plans to hold training exercises with the SSM-1 anti-ship missile systems, equipped with the Type-88 missiles on the Hokkaido Island near the Russian border in June, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday in a statement.

It said that Moscow considers such “provocative” military activity near Russia’s borders “a potential threat to its national security,” adding that Tokyo’s actions heighten tensions in Northeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Russia reserves the right to take all necessary countermeasures” to ensure its security on its Far Eastern borders, the Foreign Ministry warned.

Earlier reports indicated that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are planning to conduct live-fire training exercises using anti-ship missiles at the Shizunai range in Hokkaido, a region bordering Russia, this summer.

The exercise will utilise Type 88 surface-to-ship missiles.

While Japan previously conducted similar drills beyond the national boarders due to the missile’s range — nearly 150 km or more — which might endanger safety on the sea and in airspace, it has now decided to hold exercises within Japanese territory with specific range restrictions.

The Shizunai range, situated on Hokkaido’s southern coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean, will host the drills.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi has confirmed that preparations for these exercises are underway.

Russian and Chinese warships recently held joint drills in the Sea of Japan, part of a major naval exercise that Russian President Vladimir Putin said was the largest of its kind in three decades.

Then last week, a Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time.

Japan called that incident “totally unacceptable from the perspective of the security environment of Japan and the region”.

In 2023, an aircraft believed but not confirmed to be Russian entered Japanese airspace, according to the Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara.

IANS