Russian Foreign Ministry: Russia will take into account in military planning the possible deployment of the US INF in Japan
Moscow will take into account the possible deployment of US medium- and shorter-range missiles (INF) in Japan. This was stated on August 3 in an interview with RTVI TV channel by the director of the third Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Nikolai Nozdrev.
"It is quite obvious that if [Washington] decides to deploy the INF on the territory of Japan, it will pose a serious threat to neighboring states and this, of course, will require consideration, including in the defense strategy of the Russian Federation regarding the security of its Far Eastern borders," Nozdryov said.
He believes that if reports about the deployment of US missiles in Japan with reference to anonymous officials in the government of specific states appear, it means that there is really talk about it. According to Nozdrev, this indicates Japan's desire to serve the military interests of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region (APR) as accurately as possible to solve American strategic tasks.
Earlier in the day, the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported on the US government's request to Japan. It concerned the deployment of medium-range missiles on the first island chain, which includes the Japanese archipelago. The publication reported that we are talking about LRHW hypersonic complexes and Tomahawk land-based cruise missiles. Their range is more than 2 thousand km.
Back on February 5, the United States requested permission from Japan to deploy long-range hypersonic weapons and Tomahawk land-based cruise missiles on their territory to confront China. On February 15, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the country's plans to buy Tomahawk cruise missiles of the latest modification from the United States. Missiles have different capabilities, including the ability to evade interception. Kishida stressed that Japan needs to have means of striking, the range of which will exceed the range of the attacking means of the alleged enemy.
At the same time, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko stressed that Russia would immediately respond to any threat to the Far East from Japan. This will also apply to the deployment of hypersonic missiles near the border with Russia. He stressed that Moscow has repeatedly expressed a strong protest to Tokyo because of the growth of dangerous activities near the borders, including joint military exercises with the United States and tests of new types of missiles and other weapons. Also on February 10, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia was going to monitor US plans to deploy hypersonic missiles in Japan. The implementation of these plans, according to her, will mean for Russia a qualitative change in the regional security situation.
