Japan protested on Monday July 4 after a Chinese frigate skimmed islets in the East China Sea administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, several Japanese media also mentioning the passage of a Russian military ship in the same area.
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Tokyo expressed "
its great concern
" to Beijing through diplomatic channels and once again demanded that such incidents do not happen again, Seiji Kihara, the deputy secretary general of the Japanese government, told the press.
Incursions by Chinese coast guard vessels near the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu by Beijing, are frequent.
A “contiguous zone”
But this is the first time since 2018 that a Chinese military boat has come so close, entering the "
contiguous zone
", a strip 12 nautical miles wide (about 22 km) extending right after the territorial waters.
A Russian military boat was also spotted Monday in the same area, according to several Japanese media citing sources in the Japanese Ministry of Defense.
Requested by AFP, the ministry had not confirmed this information for the time being.
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At the end of May, Chinese and Russian bombers flew together near Japan, which was seen as a provocation by Tokyo, which had just hosted a summit of the "
Quad
", an informal alliance between the United States, Japan, India and Australia aiming to counterbalance China in the Asia-Pacific.
Relations between Japan and Russia have also deteriorated markedly since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Tokyo joining Western sanctions against Moscow.