The Russian and Chinese navies stepped up drills in the Western Pacific in June as their respective summer training plans got into full swing, according to a Japanese government report.
NewsweekThe map shows that Russian and Chinese vessels frequently use maritime routes near Japan, a close U.S. ally, including the Miyako Strait, Osumi Strait, and Tsushima Strait in the southwest, and the Tsugaru Strait and La Perouse Strait in the north.
Japan has territorial disputes with Russia (the Kuril Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk) and China (the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea), and shares a maritime border with a potential adversary: North Korea, led by Kim Jong Un.
Collectively, the strategic waterways throughout the archipelago are part of the so-called First Island Chain, a Cold War-era defense strategy that sought to blockade the Soviet and Chinese navies at choke points as they tried to pass through friendly U.S. territory into the vast Pacific Ocean.
Documents regularly released by the Ministry of Defense’s Joint Staff Office provide a rough record of the movements of the two countries’ warships, which are tracked and photographed by Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels and aircraft.
Joint Staff Office
The Joint Staff Office said in June that the Japanese navy had seized 27 ships from 14 Russian and Chinese fleets, as well as four fleets in May, the first month of fiscal 2024, and seven fleets in April.
Russian warships spotted near the coast include an Udaloy-class destroyer. Admiral Panteleyev Ropucha-class landing ship Oslyabya and PeresvetThe Russian Pacific Fleet sailed through the Tsugaru Strait to the Western Pacific on June 18th.
On Friday, Tokyo patrolled the seas with China’s Luyang III-class destroyer. Opened Jiangkai II class frigate YantaiThe submarine, part of the country’s North Sea Fleet, returned to the East China Sea from exercises in the western Pacific a day earlier.
The two warships were spotted on June 26th sailing in opposite directions through the Osumi Strait, south of Kyushu Island, the southernmost part of Japan.
Joint Staff Office
Russia’s Pacific Fleet is headquartered in the closed city of Fokino in Peter the Great Bay in the Sea of Japan, while China’s East Sea Fleet is based in Ningbo and its North Sea Fleet in Qingdao, two port cities on the east coast.
Neither the Russian nor the Chinese vessels have been accused of violating Japan’s territorial waters.
The last time the Russian and Chinese navies conducted joint drills was in a March incident involving Iran. Last July, the two militaries conducted joint drills that included significant naval components, with a warship traveling thousands of miles from the Sea of Japan to the Western Pacific Ocean, partially encircling Japan in the process.
The two countries are expected to send naval vessels to the same area in the coming weeks, in what is seen as a strengthening of strategic cooperation between Beijing and Moscow.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Pacific Fleet completed 10-day exercises in the region on Friday, deploying 40 ships, fighter jets and helicopters as part of the training.
The Russian and Chinese defence ministries could not be reached for comment outside hours.
Rare knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
