The Ministry of Defense reported this Monday the deployment of its fighter jets to monitor a Russian intelligence plane that was flying near its territory. This is the second incident of this type in less than a week, which has set off alarm bells for the , which is no longer limited to Western countries, but also to Eastern ones.
“We confirmed that a Russian intelligence gathering aircraft (IL-20) had flown over the Sea of Japan and responded by sending fighter jets from the Northern Air Defense Force and other forces,” said the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, detailing that the incident took place on Saturday.
The event, reported today, took place a day after Japan sent fighters to intercept and monitor a group of Russian aircraft, which included Tu-95 strategic bombers with transport capacity, according to the archipelago’s Defense Minister, Shinjiro Koizumi. “Russia carries out active military activities around Japan almost daily,” Koizumi said in a message posted on his X social network profile.
The Japanese Defense Minister added that “even in this challenging environment”, the Asian country is implementing countermeasures in response to airspace violations and carrying out 24-hour surveillance tasks “to resolutely protect Japan’s territory, waters and airspace.”
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense defended that last Friday’s flight was scheduled over “neutral waters” of the Sea of Japan.
An old dispute
Tokyo and Moscow maintain one, located north of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and which became part of Japan in 1875 under the Treaty of Saint Petersburg.
The islands were incorporated into the former Soviet Union (USSR) after the Second World War by the , shortly after the surrender of Japan, which considered the annexation of what it called “the Northern Territories” illegal.
Control of these islands, which have passed from hand to hand since the 18th century, allows Russia to claim the entire Okhotsk as an inland sea and an area of existential importance in its naval doctrine.
Russia suspended consultations on a possible peace treaty with Japan after Tokyo imposed sanctions on it over the Ukraine war.
