The Japanese Defense Ministry reported on Monday that two groups of warships, which were assigned to the Russian Pacific Fleet, recently transited near the East Asian country.
The Joint Staff Office under the Defense Ministry of Japan reported the sighting of a total of seven naval vessels from Russia near the country’s southwestern, western, and northern territorial waters, an area that extends seaward up to 12 nautical miles from its shores.
Two Russian warships take part in an exercise in the Sea of Japan on September 15. The Japanese Defense Ministry on October 7 reported the sighting of seven Russian naval vessels near Japan’s territorial waters.
Vitaliy Ankov/Sputnik via AP
This news comes as the Russian military continue to operate around the Japanese archipelago. Last month, two Russian maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft circumnavigated Japan, a treaty ally of the United States, within international airspace.
Another Russian maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft intruded the airspace of Japan three times when it flew north of Hokkaido, one of Japan’s four main islands, the same month. Japanese fighter jets scrambled and fired a signal flare as a warning.
According to the Japanese report, four Russian naval ships transited the Tsushima Strait southward on Saturday as they entered the East China Sea from the Sea of Japan. They passed through the Japanese southwestern islands of Yonaguni and Iriomote on Monday.
This group is composed of corvettes Gromkiy, Aldar Tsydenzhapov, and Rezkiy, as well as a supply ship. They departed from Vladivostok, a port city in the Russian far east, to fulfill their assigned tasks in the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
According to the Japanese military, this Russian naval group headed southward in the Philippine Sea, a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It transited off the eastern coast of Taiwan, a self-ruled island that is viewed by China as a breakaway province.
Meanwhile, another Russian naval group, which is composed of corvette Ust-Ilimsk and two mine countermeasures ships, transited the La Perouse Strait, also known as the Soya Strait, north of Hokkaido on Sunday as they left the Sea of Japan for the Sea of Okhotsk.
Newsweek has reached out to the defense ministry in Moscow for comment by email.
The Tsushima Strait and the La Perouse Strait are the major waterways for the Russian Pacific Fleet to access the wider Pacific Ocean. Japan has designated them as international waterways, which limited its territorial waters there to less than the usual 12 nautical miles.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), transit passage applies to straits that are used for international navigation where all ships enjoy the freedom of navigation “solely for the purpose of continuous and expeditious transit.”
The Russian Pacific Fleet reported on Tuesday that a joint Russia-China naval group practiced anti-submarine missions during a joint patrol in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. The group is composed of two Russian and four Chinese warships.
