The United States issued a warning to China and Russia for the joint naval exercises they carried out on Monday, in which
10 warships circumnavigated the main island of Japan.
The Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro, said in a phone call with reporters that these two rival powers were trying to intimidate other nations "with their actions that do not abide by the rules on which the international order is based."
"Certainly it is necessary to dissuade them from intimidating other countries and committing any kind of aggression ... we want to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific," Del Toro said, adding that it was an "unprecedented" maneuver.
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For their part, China and Russia described their operation as necessary to guarantee the stability of the region, by demonstrating the ability of the two countries to maintain strategic operations jointly.
Russian and Chinese warships carry out a joint naval exercise off the coast of Japan on October 23, 2021.RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY / via REUTERS
Experts consider, however, that this demonstration of power will have the opposite effect: the countries in the area
will feel more threatened
and will redouble their defense strategy against any eventual aggression.
"It will reinforce the conclusion that Japan has already drawn that China potentially poses a threat and therefore has to increase its own defense spending and its preparedness to deal with it," said Drew Thompson, former Defense Department official and principal investigator. Visitor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, as quoted by CNN.
These exercises also strengthen the relationship between China and Russia, two countries with which the United States maintains
an economic, military and cybersecurity pulse
.
The ships crossed the Tsugaru Strait, which separates the main island of Japan from the northern island of Hokkaido, then made their way to the eastern coast of Japan and finally returned to China via the Osumi Strait, off the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. .
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Japan is one of the biggest allies of the United States in the region, along with South Korea.
This summer, their navies conducted joint exercises,
so Sino-Russian operations seem like an answer.
Yoshihiko Isozaki, the deputy chief of staff, claimed that this was the first time that Russian and Chinese vessels had passed in a joint formation through the Tsugaru and Osumi Straits, as well as the waters near the Izu Islands.
The Japanese government is paying close attention to their activities. "
Yoshihiko Isozaki Deputy Chief of Staff of Japan
"The Japanese government is paying close attention to their activities with great interest," Isozaki said.
Japan views China's increasingly daring maritime activities as a threat to regional security.
The two countries are locked in a dispute over the islands of the East China Sea controlled by Japan and which China claims as part of its territory.
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Japan also has a territorial dispute with Russia
over a different group of islands north of Hokkaido, which has prevented them from signing a peace treaty formally ending hostilities in World War II.
For its part, the United States, whose presence in the area is supervised by the Indo-Pacific Command, based in Honolulu, is also closely monitoring North Korea's military advance, which in recent weeks has accelerated its ballistic tests.
These trials are seen as a challenge to international efforts to curb the development of the North Korean nuclear program and a provocation to President Joe Biden.
With information from
The Associated Press
.
