Japan and the United States kicked off 10 days of joint military drills on Wednesday involving tens of thousands of personnel, a week after China held large-scale exercises around Taiwan.
Chinaโs military build-up and growing defence ties among Washington and its allies have raised fears of a conflict over self-ruled Taiwan โ which Beijing claims as its own โ or over other territorial disputes in the region.
โKeen Swordโ will involve 45,000 Japanese and US troops, 40 vessels and 370 aircraft, as well as some forces from Australia and Canada, the Japanese Joint Staff said.
The exercises, which take place every two years, will be held across Japan, including at the two countriesโ military bases through November 1.
We have a strong sense of urgency that we canโt rule out the possibility of a serious situation resembling Ukraine happening in regions near our country,โ General Yoshihide Yoshida, the top uniformed officer in Japanโs Self-Defense Forces (SDF), said on Tuesday.
โWe are determined to prevent and deter such a situation,โ he told a news conference, adding the US-Japan alliance was integral to regional stability.
โKeen Sword will ensure we maintain our advantage over those who seek to undermine the rule-based international orderโ, Admiral Steve Koehler, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, told reporters Tuesday.
The exercises will see tilt-rotor aircraft Ospreys fly to Yonaguni, the Japanese island closest to Taiwan, for the first time, as part of an โevacuationโ drill, an SDF spokesman told AFP.
The drill was to practise bringing out residents and tourists โin the event of a natural disasterโ, he said.
Japanโs new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has also evoked Russiaโs invasion of Ukraine in warning about security dangers in Asia.
โMany fear that todayโs Ukraine could be tomorrowโs East Asia. Why did deterrence not work in Ukraine?โ Ishiba told parliament this month soon after being elected.
Ishiba, facing a difficult snap election on Sunday, backs the creation of a regional military alliance along the lines of the Western bloc NATO, although he has cautioned this would โnot happen overnightโ.
In August, a Chinese military aircraft staged the first confirmed incursion by China into Japanese airspace, followed weeks later by a Japanese warship sailing through the Taiwan Strait for the first time.
Earlier Wednesday, Taiwanโs defence minister said a Chinese aircraft carrier group sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, a day after Beijing held a live-fire exercise near the island.
It followed Chinaโs large-scale military drills around Taiwan last week that were condemned by Taipei and its key backer Washington.
A blockade of the island was among the exercises carried out by Beijing, which has refused to rule out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
