Sixth operation since 2019, also covered the East China Sea
The armed forces of China and Russia, according to their annual cooperation plan, “organized and implemented” today “the sixth joint strategic air patrol in the relevant airspace of the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea”.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense surprisingly reports it in a short note announcing an operation that is the sixth of its kind since 2019.
The move has come to coincide with increased military maneuvers and military exercises by the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific.
China’s last joint military air patrol with Russia is in November 2022: on the occasion, Seoul scrambled its fighter planes after Chinese H-6K bombers and Russian TU-95 bombers, as well as SU-35 fighters used, they entered the South Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (Kadiz). Tokyo also mobilized its jets in response to Chinese bombers and two intercepted Russian drones flying over the Sea of Japan.
The air defense zone is an area where countries require foreign aircraft to take special measures to identify themselves, especially military aircraft: unlike a country’s airspace, which is over its territory and territorial waters, it does not there are international rules governing it. In May 2022 operations, Chinese and Russian warplanes approached Japanese airspace as the Quad leaders’ summit, the security format of the US, India, Japan and Australia, was held in Tokyo.
Despite Tokyo’s alarm and anger, Beijing replied that the operations were not aimed at third parties, but were only part of plans for military cooperation with Moscow. Since last week, coast guard units from the United States, Japan and the Philippines have been engaged in their first trilateral naval exercise in the South China Sea, in response to China’s growing military assertiveness.
Over the weekend, a Chinese warship came within 100 meters of a US destroyer, engaged with a Canadian frigate, in a transit through the Taiwan Strait in support of freedom of navigation, nearly colliding with unpredictable consequences. Previously, in an episode of May 26, the US released a short video of a Chinese military fighter positioning itself with an “unprofessional” maneuver in front of an American RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, forcing it to fly in the slipstream with the related risks .
Source: Ansa News
