Any threat to the Far East from Japan, including the deployment of hypersonic missiles near the border with Russia, will be followed by an immediate response from the Russian side. On February 13, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko warned about this in an interview with “RIA News”.
“We will continue to closely monitor the development of Japanese military construction and, in the event of any potential security threats to our Far Eastern regions, immediately take retaliatory measures in accordance with the defense doctrine of Russia,” he said.
According to the diplomat, the Russian Federation has repeatedly expressed strong protest to Japan in connection with the increase in dangerous activities near the borders, including joint military exercises with the United States and testing of new types of missiles and other weapons.
Earlier, on February 5, the US leadership asked the Japanese authorities for permission to deploy long-range hypersonic weapons and ground-based Tomahawk cruise missiles on their territory to confront China. According to the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, the new Japanese government may begin full-scale negotiations to accept the proposal in the foreseeable future. In addition, it is not known what type of weapons the countries plan to deploy and in what quantities.
In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow would monitor US plans to deploy hypersonic missiles in Japan. She noted that the start of their implementation would mean for Russia a qualitative change in the regional security situation, which would also have a projection on global strategic stability.
On January 30, the US Department of Defense announced the successful test flight of a Lockheed Martin hypersonic missile. The launch was the final test flight of the Hypersonic Airborne Weapons (HAWC) project, which the US Air Force conducted jointly with the Pentagon Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
On Jan. 14, Kyodo reported that Japan had announced that it would provide 211.3 billion yen ($1.65 billion) for the purchase of U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles. It is assumed that such a step will increase the ability of the country’s self-defense forces to retaliate against enemy bases in the event of a military threat.
