Japan has intercepted three groups of Russian and Chinese warships in its surrounding waters in recent days as the United States, Tokyo's security ally, faces a widening sea power gap in the Western Pacific Ocean.
The recent Russian and Chinese naval activities around Japan come after the U.S. Navy redeployed two of its Pacific-based aircraft carriers and their strike groups to the Middle East as tensions rise there.
On Monday and Tuesday, Japan's Defense Ministry reported movements of foreign warships within its exclusive economic zone. Two Grisha-class corvettes and one Alexandrit-class minesweeper of the Russian navy were spotted operating in waters north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido on Friday.
The Russian warships later transited La Perouse Strait westward from the Sea of Okhotsk and entered the Sea of Japan. The Russian Pacific Fleet uses this waterway, also known as the Soya Strait in Japan, to reach the Northern Pacific Ocean from its base at Vladivostok in the Far East.
Both the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk are areas of operations for the Russian Pacific Fleet, and it conducts exercises there regularly. The Japanese Defense Ministry said its navy deployed a patrol boat and a P-3C maritime patrol aircraft to shadow the three Russian warships.
Meanwhile, a second group of Russian warships, composed of the cruiser Varyag and the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov, transited northward between the Japanese islands of Yonaguni and Iriomote on Tuesday, entering the East China Sea from the Philippine Sea. A Japanese navy replenishment oiler monitored them, the Japanese Defense Ministry said. Newsweek has contacted the defense ministries in Moscow and Beijing for comment by email.
Both Russian warships left Vladivostok in late January for a long-distance voyage, according to the Pacific Fleet. They later joined the Russian naval formation in the Mediterranean Sea until last month, when they passed through the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea for the return journey.
In a separate report published by Japan's Defense Ministry on Monday, two Chinese warships, a Type 075 landing helicopter dock and a Type 052B/C/D destroyer, were spotted transiting the Miyako Strait southward in formation from the East China Sea to the Philippine Sea on Saturday.
The strait forms the first island chain, which starts from Japan in the north and extends southward to Taiwan and the Philippines. This maritime containment strategy was developed during the Cold War and sought to contain both the Soviet Union and Chinese naval activities in the region.
It is the second time Japan's navy has reported a sighting of a Chinese Type 075 landing helicopter dock since June of last year. China has three such warships in its service, capable of supporting helicopter and amphibious assault operations, and a fourth is being fitted out after its launch.
According to the report, the Japanese navy sent a destroyer to monitor the Chinese warships.
On Monday, the U.S. Naval Institute's USNI News reported that USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of the aircraft carriers repositioned from the Pacific to the Middle East, was operating in the Gulf of Oman.
Its sister ship, USS Abraham Lincoln, was underway in the Indian Ocean after transiting the Strait of Malacca on Friday.
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