Chinese, Russian ships drill in Japan EEZ, Koizumi says in speech

2026-07-21

Chinese, Russian ships drill in Japan EEZ

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said in a speech in Farnborough in southern England on the 20th, Japan time, that Chinese and Russian naval vessels had conducted live-fire drills inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

According to multiple sources, the Maritime Self-Defense Force confirmed four Chinese and Russian naval vessels sailing southwest of Okinotorishima around 2 a.m. on the 19th. One Chinese missile destroyer carried out shooting drills, they said. No damage to ships was confirmed.

Koizumi said China and Russia were 'strengthening military coordination'. It is unusual for Chinese naval firing inside Japan's EEZ to come to light, and in his speech he also referred to China's launch tests of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and joint flights by Chinese and Russian bombers around Japan.

He also said security in the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic cannot be separated, and that Japan sees itself as playing a role linking the two regions. The Joint Staff of the Defense Ministry said on the 16th that four Chinese and Russian naval vessels had sailed southward between Okinawa's main island and Miyako Island that day and headed into the Pacific in a joint navigation. Sources said these were the same four vessels confirmed this time.

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