Japan: two Russian planes spotted near the coast, Tokyo sends its hunting patrol

Tensions in the Land of the Rising Sun. Two Russian reconnaissance planes flew over the Japanese coast, one over the Pacific Ocean and the other in the Sea of ​​Japan, the Japanese army general staff announced in a brief statement on Thursday. As a result, Tokyo launched a patrol of fighter jets to secure its airspace.

This incident comes a few days after the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the G7 summit which was organized in Hiroshima, in the west of Japan, and during which all the members of this group reaffirmed their support for Kiev in the face of the invasion. Russian. Japan has been enforcing economic and financial sanctions imposed on Russia by the G7 and other Western countries since its offensive in Ukraine began 15 months ago.

Japan sees Russia as a threat

Already, in May 2022, Russian and Chinese fighter jets had flown together near Japan just after a meeting in Tokyo of the leaders of the “Quad”, an informal security alliance in Asia-Pacific bringing together the United States, Japan , Australia and India. And more recently, Russia conducted military maneuvers in the Sea of ​​Japan that involved missile launches.

While Tokyo had in the past sought to improve its relations with Moscow, Japan now sees Russian military power in the Far East and its cooperation with China as a serious threat to the security of its territory.

Before the war in Ukraine, Japan already had complicated relations with Russia. Moscow now regards Japan as a “hostile” country, like all the countries of the European Union, the United States and other of its allies such as the United Kingdom and Australia. The two countries did not sign a peace treaty after the Second World War, all efforts in this direction having been blocked by a territorial dispute concerning the Kuril Islands of the South, occupied then annexed by Moscow at the end of this conflict. and what Japan calls the “Northern Territories”.