The shadow of US missiles in Japan and the risk to world peace

Moscow warns that the deployment of US missiles in Japan could destabilize regional security and provoke a new escalation of tensions with Russia

The deployment of US medium-range missiles in Japan would pose a threat to Russia’s security, and Russia will take proportionate measures in response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, adding that Tokyo is “deliberately exacerbating tensions” around China’s Taiwan island as it tries to justify its acceleration of militarization, TASS reported.

Moscow’s warning comes after Kyodo news reported that the US military will establish temporary bases along the Nansei island chain in southwestern Japan and the Philippines to deploy missile units in the event of a “Taiwan contingency.” , according to sources familiar with Japan-US relations, cited on Sunday.

Zakharova accused Tokyo of “deliberately exacerbating tensions around the island of Taiwan, including in the information space. In this way, it is trying to justify its acceleration of militarization and military-technical cooperation with Washington,” she said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The action also evidently reflects Washington’s provocative actions, which are taken under the slogan of “preserving the status quo”, and constitutes a violation of its own commitments to Beijing on the Taiwan issue, the spokeswoman added.

This is “direct pressure on China and undermining regional stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region,” Zakharova noted.

Russia has repeatedly warned the Japanese side that if, as a result of this cooperation, US medium-range missiles appear on its territory, this will pose a real threat to Russia’s security, and it will be forced to take the necessary and proportionate measures to strengthen its defense capabilities, the spokeswoman said, according to the TASS report.

Zakharova referred to Russia’s updated nuclear deterrence doctrine to understand possible actions Moscow could take.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated that Russia is considering the possibility of deploying medium- and short-range missiles in Asia if US missiles appear in the same region, Xinhua news agency reported.

With information from Global Times*