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TOKYO: Two Russian fighter jets
violated Japanese airspace on
Thursday as Tokyo scrambled its
own planes in response, the
defence ministry said, reportedly
the first such incident in five years. The Russian planes were
detected off the coast of
northernmost Hokkaido island
for just over a minute, shortly
after Japan's new prime minister
said he wants to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to a decades-
old territorial row between the
countries. Japan's foreign ministry lodged a
formal protest over the incursion
by a pair of Russian Su-27
fighters at about 3pm local time
(0600 GMT). "Today, around 3pm, military
fighters belonging to Russian
Federation breached our nation's
airspace above territorial waters
off Hokkaido's Rishiri island," the
foreign ministry said. It was the first breach of Japanese airspace by
Russia since February 2008, according to
Japanese media reports Thursday. The incident came hours after hawkish Japanese
premier Shinzo Abe who swept to power in
December with pledges to get tough on
diplomacy offered apparently conciliatory
comments toward Moscow over the Russian-
administered Southern Kurils, known as the Northern Territories in Japan. Abe's tone was in marked contrast to his
uncompromising stance on a dispute with Beijing
over the sovereignty of a different set of
disputed islands. "There is no change in my resolve to do
everything I can towards sealing a peace treaty
with Russia after resolving the issue of the
Northern Territories," Abe said. In December, Abe and Russian President Vladimir
Putin agreed to restart talks on signing a peace
treaty formally ending the hostilities of World
War II that has been stymied by the dispute. "In the telephone talks, I told President Putin I
would make efforts to find a mutually acceptable
solution so as to ultimately solve the issue of the
Northern Territories," Abe told a government-
backed rally of around 2,000 former islanders
and their descendants in Tokyo. Soviet forces seized the isles, which stretch out
into rich fishing waters off the northern coast of
Hokkaido, in the dying days of WWII and drove
out Japanese residents. The islands were later re-populated by Russians
but remain a poor and undeveloped part of the
country. Abe's comments come as tensions between
Japan and China have intensified over the
sovereignty of the Tokyo-administered Senkaku
Islands in the East China Sea, claimed by Beijing as
the Diaoyus. On Tuesday Japan said a Chinese frigate had
locked its weapons-targeting radar onto a
Japanese military vessel, the first time the two
nation's navies have locked horns in a dispute
that flared badly last summer. Abe on Wednesday called the radar move
"dangerous" and "provocative". On Thursday, Beijing shot back that Tokyo has
been "hyping up crisis and deliberately creating
tension to smear China's image". The Japanese prime minister has repeatedly said
there is no room for negotiation over the East
China Sea islands. But he has also stressed the
row should not harm overall ties with Beijing, an
important trading partner.
http://www.timesofindia.com/world/r...-scrambles-warplanes/articleshow/18383546.cms
violated Japanese airspace on
Thursday as Tokyo scrambled its
own planes in response, the
defence ministry said, reportedly
the first such incident in five years. The Russian planes were
detected off the coast of
northernmost Hokkaido island
for just over a minute, shortly
after Japan's new prime minister
said he wants to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to a decades-
old territorial row between the
countries. Japan's foreign ministry lodged a
formal protest over the incursion
by a pair of Russian Su-27
fighters at about 3pm local time
(0600 GMT). "Today, around 3pm, military
fighters belonging to Russian
Federation breached our nation's
airspace above territorial waters
off Hokkaido's Rishiri island," the
foreign ministry said. It was the first breach of Japanese airspace by
Russia since February 2008, according to
Japanese media reports Thursday. The incident came hours after hawkish Japanese
premier Shinzo Abe who swept to power in
December with pledges to get tough on
diplomacy offered apparently conciliatory
comments toward Moscow over the Russian-
administered Southern Kurils, known as the Northern Territories in Japan. Abe's tone was in marked contrast to his
uncompromising stance on a dispute with Beijing
over the sovereignty of a different set of
disputed islands. "There is no change in my resolve to do
everything I can towards sealing a peace treaty
with Russia after resolving the issue of the
Northern Territories," Abe said. In December, Abe and Russian President Vladimir
Putin agreed to restart talks on signing a peace
treaty formally ending the hostilities of World
War II that has been stymied by the dispute. "In the telephone talks, I told President Putin I
would make efforts to find a mutually acceptable
solution so as to ultimately solve the issue of the
Northern Territories," Abe told a government-
backed rally of around 2,000 former islanders
and their descendants in Tokyo. Soviet forces seized the isles, which stretch out
into rich fishing waters off the northern coast of
Hokkaido, in the dying days of WWII and drove
out Japanese residents. The islands were later re-populated by Russians
but remain a poor and undeveloped part of the
country. Abe's comments come as tensions between
Japan and China have intensified over the
sovereignty of the Tokyo-administered Senkaku
Islands in the East China Sea, claimed by Beijing as
the Diaoyus. On Tuesday Japan said a Chinese frigate had
locked its weapons-targeting radar onto a
Japanese military vessel, the first time the two
nation's navies have locked horns in a dispute
that flared badly last summer. Abe on Wednesday called the radar move
"dangerous" and "provocative". On Thursday, Beijing shot back that Tokyo has
been "hyping up crisis and deliberately creating
tension to smear China's image". The Japanese prime minister has repeatedly said
there is no room for negotiation over the East
China Sea islands. But he has also stressed the
row should not harm overall ties with Beijing, an
important trading partner.
http://www.timesofindia.com/world/r...-scrambles-warplanes/articleshow/18383546.cms
