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China-Russia cooperation

China-Russia Naval Cooperation in East Asia: Implications for Japan

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During the evening of June 8, 2016, three Russian naval vessels, including a destroyer, entered the contiguous zone around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. Shortly afterward, a Chinese frigate also entered the area and proceeded toward the Russian ships, as if intending to meet with them. This represented the first instance of a Chinese military vessel entering the contiguous zone around the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by China as the Diaoyu Islands. Just as worrying, it appeared to show that Russia, which officially remains neutral with regard to the territorial dispute, had begun to coordinate… Read More »China-Russia Naval Cooperation in East Asia: Implications for Japan

China and Russia in the Western Pacific: Implications for Japan and the United States

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China’s growing maritime power is changing the military balance among Asian countries. The continental power of Russia and China dominates the Asian landmass, while the maritime power of the United States and Japan secures freedom of the seas in the western Pacific. Neither side can project sufficient conventional power into the realm of the other.[1] After the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the Soviet Union learned the importance of sea power and by the early 1970s had developed the world’s second-largest navy. By the 1980s, the Soviet Union had reinforced its naval and air forces in the Far East, both… Read More »China and Russia in the Western Pacific: Implications for Japan and the United States