Chinese, Russian Bombers Jointly Fly around Japan

Tokyo, June 28 (Jiji Press)–Chinese and Russian bombers jointly flew around Japan twice Saturday, Japan’s Defense Ministry has said. It was the first time since last December that bombers from China and Russia were confirmed to have conducted joint flights around Japan. According to the ministry’s Joint Staff, two Chinese bombers flew from the East China Sea on Saturday morning and joined two Russian bombers over the Sea of Japan. They later traveled to the East China Sea with a total of five other warplanes from the two countries–three fighters and two patrol planes. In the afternoon, the same Russian bombers joined two different bombers from China over the East China Sea. The four planes and six other aircraft–four fighters and two patrol planes–flew between the main island of Okinawa Prefecture and Miyako Island in the southernmost Japan prefecture, and then traveled to areas over the Pacific off Japan’s Shikoku main island in the western part of the country. In both incidents, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fighters were scrambled for surveillance activities. None of the Chinese and Russian aircraft violated Japanese airspace, according to the Joint Staff. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]