Japanese forces tracked Russian Navy and People’s Army Liberation Navy ships conducting separate movements on this week, while Tokyo has protested the intrusion of a Chinese survey ship into Japanese territorial waters.
On Monday, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces said at noon on Sunday, Russian Navy corvettes RFS Sovetskaya Gavan (350) and RFS Koryeyets (390) were sighted sailing west in an area about 19 miles north of Cape Soya on the main island of Hokkaido and sailed west through La Perouse Strait to the Sea of Japan. JMSDF fast attack craft JS Kumataka (PG-827) and a JMSDF P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft tracked the Russian ship.
Russian Navy ships routinely use the strait to transit between the Sea of Japan on the west side of the strait and the Sea of Okhotsk on the east side. Japan which designates Russia, China and Korea as its primary security challenges, routinely has JMSDF ships and aircraft shadowing Russian and Chinese ships that pass near Japan.
On Sunday, PLAN destroyer CNS Jinan (152) and fleet oiler CNS Chao Hu (890) were sighted sailing southeast in an area 80 miles northeast of Miyako Island and then sailed southeast in the waters near Okinawa and Miyako and entered the Philippine Sea.
Mine countermeasure vessel JS Bungo (MST-464 and a JMSDF P-3C Orion MPA of Fleet Air Wing 5 based at Naha Air Base, Okinawa, shadowed the PLAN ships. The waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa is known as the Miyako Strait, and is around 155 miles wide, making most of the waters there international waters, PLAN ships and also Chinese military aircraft routinely transit between the East China Sea and Philippine Sea along this route. Japan plans to step up surveillance in this area with a mobile radar to be deployed to Kita Daito Island, which lies east of Okinawa, enabling Japan to effectively track movements around the Philippine Sea area near the island.
Earlier on Aug. 31, Japan’s Ministry of Defense said PLAN Shupang class survey ship Qian Weichang was sighted sailing east in Japan’s contiguous waters and subsequently entered Japan’s territorial waters southwest of Kuchinoerabu Island. The PLAN ship left Japan’s territorial waters southwest of Yakushima Island at 7.53 a.m. and then sailed south. Minesweeper JS Shishijima (MSC-691) and a JMSDF P-1 MPA of Fleet Air Wing 1 based at JMSDF Kanoya Air Base on the main island of Kyushu shadowed the PLAN ship, stated the release.
PLAN survey ships have in the past violated Japanese territorial waters around its southwest islands on several occasions while the China Coast Guard meanwhile has on numerous occasions violated Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands though in the latter case, China has laid claim to the Senkaku Islands and states that the Coast Guard incursions there are China’s rightful exercise of sovereignty over its territorial waters.
In a Tuesday press conference in Japan, Japan Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, stated that the Japanese government protested China along with expressing strong concerns on the incident and an earlier airspace violation on Aug. 26 . The Japan defense chief said it was difficult to state the purpose and intention of the Chinese ship and whether the incidents were related, but in recent years, China has been stepping up its military activities around Japan and the MOD and Self-Defense Forces will continue to monitor the movements of Chinese naval vessels and will take all possible measures to ensure surveillance and monitoring activities in the sea and air spaces surrounding Japan.
In a Wednesday press conference in Australia, where Kihara was attending the annual Australia-Japan 2+2 meeting of their defense and foreign ministers, Kihara stated that he had briefed Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles on both incidents during their defense ministers meeting, and that both of them agreed to further strengthen their cooperation to counter China’s attempts to unilaterally change the status quo. A joint statement on the 2+2 meeting on Thursday stated that Marles, Kihara, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa discussed with serious concern the recent activities by Chinese military assets in Japanese territory, “we discussed our serious concerns over recent developments in the East and South China Seas, including China’s activities towards the Philippines and incursion into Japanese territory,” said Wong during a joint press conference following the meeting.
