Two Russian jets 'breach' Japanese airspace Tokyo scrambles warplanes

[indian_foxhound]

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

 

[tigerofindia]

Sorry for the silly question, but i want to ask that how Japanese are sure that the fighters were from russia and not china, since both these countries operate SU-27 ?

 

[Wright]

Russia does this all the time, every generation of US front line fighter from the f-5 to the f22 has intercepted those ugly looking TU-95 bears.

 

[Viet]

Moscow denied any incursion had taken place.

 

[Viet]

Sorry for the silly question, but i want to ask that how Japanese are sure that the fighters were from russia and not china, since both these countries operate SU-27 ?

given the postion of the islands, the jets must come from Russia, 99% possibility.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

These Islands are so strategic for Russia, Japan will never get its, otherwise it will be less convenient for Russian navy to access to the pacific. They sure know that Japan and U.S are using island chain strategic over China, they certainly don't want to let that happen to them.

By using the same strategy, Russia will let U.S and Japan less room to manouver when crossing in between these islands chains to access the arctic pole.

 

[Viet]

Formally Russia and Japan are still at war since they don´t sign a peace treaty after WW II. I suggest Abe should buy back the disputed islands from Russia.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Formally Russia and Japan are still at war since they don´t sign a peace treaty after WW II. I suggest Abe should buy back the disputed islands from Russia.

for how much?

 

[Viet]

for how much?

Abe said recently "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,". In the past Japan did offer economic packages to Russia if a deal is reached.

How much? if I was Japan, some few billions can be put on the table. And as a friend of Russia and Japan, we can mediate the negotiation.

 

[Hellraiser007]

Abe said recently "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,". In the past Japan did offer economic packages to Russia if a deal is reached.

How much? if I was Japan, some few billions can be put on the table. And as a friend of Russia and Japan, we can mediate the negotiation.

Cool down mate Russia will not fight Japan nor it will support China. Russia's immediate threat is China not Nato or Japan.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Abe said recently "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,". In the past Japan did offer economic packages to Russia if a deal is reached.

How much? if I was Japan, some few billions can be put on the table.

If territory dispute can be solved by money, we have trillion at our disposition. Money is not a solution and will never be.

 

[Sarjen]

Cool down mate Russia will not fight Japan nor it will support China. Russia's immediate threat is China not Nato or Japan.

I don't think so Russia sees China as a threat now..... those times have passed

 

[Viet]

If territory dispute can be solved by money, we have trillion at our disposition. Money is not a solution and will never be.

China has trillions, while we not. OKay, any idea how the dispute can be resolved?

Cool down mate Russia will not fight Japan nor it will support China. Russia's immediate threat is China not Nato or Japan.

Russia wants Japan to develop its less developed Far East, but as long as Russia does not give back the islands to Japan, there is no chance that Japan moves a finger.

 

[Hellraiser007]

I don't think so Russia sees China as a threat now..... those times have passed

Reality is different, Russia has no threat from NATO but the rise of China and the land dispute between them is seen as as threat.
Add to that Chinese bullying nature.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Cool down mate Russia will not fight Japan nor it will support China. Russia's immediate threat is China not Nato or Japan.

In this geopilitc business, everyone wants to be a spectator, noone what to be dragged into first blood fight. No matter how Russia see China as immediate threat or not, ultimately Russia wants to defend it own interest on every corners.