Skip to footer

Japan scrambles jets, claiming Russian airspace invasion

Japan said two Russian fighter jets briefly entered Japan's airspace near disputed islands, prompting Japan to scramble combat fighter jets in response. Russia denied the charge.

|
Joint Staff Office of Defense Ministry of Japan / AP
A Russian fighter jet SU-27 flies over the sea off the Japanese island of Hokkaido on Thursday afternoon. The Defense Ministry said two SU-27 jets, including this one, briefly intruded into Japanese airspace, prompting Japan to scramble its own jets.
  • By Staff Reuters

| TOKYO

Two Russian fighter jets briefly entered Japan's airspace near disputed islands and the northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday, prompting Japan to scramble combat fighters and lodge a protest, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

Russia, which is currently holding military manoeuvres around the disputed Kurile Islands, denied any such intrusion took place.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is expected to visit Moscow later this month to discuss territorial matters.

Thursday was Japan's "Northern Territories Day," when rallies are traditionally held calling for the return of the disputed islands it calls the Northern Territories.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had told a rally he was determined to press ahead with negotiations with Russia for the return of the islands.

"I had telephone talks with President [Vladimir] Putin in December and told him I would like to work to find a mutually acceptable solution to this last-remaining major problem between Japan and Russia," Mr. Abe said.

"The government intends to follow its basic policy of settling the territorial issue and then sign a peace treaty. We will press ahead with negotiations with strong will so that progress will be made towards the conclusive resolution of the territorial problem."

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev landed on the remote island chain in July, prompting protests from Tokyo.

Unlike Japan's dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea, which are near potentially vast maritime oil and gas reserves, the feud with Russia has more to do with the legacy of World War II.

Soviet soldiers seized the islands at the end of the war, and the territorial row has weighed on diplomatic relations ever since, precluding a formal peace treaty.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Writing by Nick Macfie)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Japan scrambles jets, claiming Russian airspace invasion
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0207/Japan-scrambles-jets-claiming-Russian-airspace-invasion
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe