Japan scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to monitor coordinated Russian–Chinese military flights near its airspace, the Defence Ministry said, marking another escalation in regional tensions amid deepening strategic cooperation between Moscow and Beijing.
According to the ministry, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers flew from the Sea of Japan toward the East China Sea, where they joined two Chinese H-6 bombers for a long-range joint patrol over the Pacific.
The formation was later reinforced by four Chinese J-16 fighter jets, completing a round trip between Japan’s Okinawa and Miyako islands through international airspace in the Miyako Strait.
Japan reported further Russian activity the same day, detecting an A-50 early-warning aircraft and two Su-30 fighters conducting operations in the Sea of Japan.
Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi condemned the flights as a deliberate provocation.
“This operation was clearly intended as a show of force against our nation,” Koizumi wrote on X, adding that the Air Self-Defense Force had “strictly implemented air defense identification measures.”
Russian media cited its defence ministry as saying the joint patrol lasted eight hours.
South Korea also reported that seven Russian aircraft and two Chinese aircraft entered its air defence identification zone on Tuesday.
The incident comes amid a string of recent confrontations.
On Sunday, Tokyo accused Chinese carrier-based fighter jets of aiming radar at Japanese military aircraft a claim Beijing rejected.
The spike in military activity follows comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month, suggesting Japan could respond to any Chinese action against Taiwan if such moves threatened Japanese security.
Russia and China have expanded their defence cooperation in recent years, conducting joint anti-missile exercises in Russia and live-fire naval drills in the South China Sea, signalling a growing strategic alignment between the two nuclear-armed powers.
