Japanese media has revealed details about last month’s military drills that focused on repelling a ‘foreign invasion’ of disputed islands claimed by China.
The two-day military exercise involving Japan’s self-defense forces, coast guard, and police was conducted in late November on a remote uninhabited island. Kyodo, reporting unnamed Japanese government sources said that the island was selected because it closely resembles the landscape of the Senkaku Islands. These islands have been long a source of tension between Japan and China. Tokyo chose to move the exercise from the Senkaku Islands and instead choose an alternate location.
The drills were reportedly based on the premise that “foreign forces” had occupied the disputed islands in the East China Sea. Officials in Tokyo, however, stopped short of naming China or any other particular nation as being likely to carry out such an ‘invasion’.
As Japanese officials revealed, approximately 400 participants participated in the landings from boats and helicopters. The drills’ main goal was to improve interoperability between various parts of the Japanese armed and security forces.
They are northeast of Taiwan. Beijing claimed that it discovered the Senkaku Islands and now owns the land. They were also known as the Diaoyu Islands in mainland China. Japan took them over in late 19th-century.
China’s coast guard vessels have come in the immediate vicinity of the islands on multiple occasions over the past several years – which Japan sees as acts of deliberate provocation.
Share this story via social media
[ad_2]
