“Russia will analyse….” Kremlin on US decision to revamp military command in Japan

Moscow [Russia], July 29 (ANI): Russia will analyze the recent decision of the United States to establish a new military command in Japan reporting to the Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, a spokesperson of the Kremilin said on Monday.

“This is not really an issue for the Kremlin, but rather an issue for analysis on the part of our military. I have no doubt that the necessary analysis will be carried out,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a briefing according to Russian state media TASS.

On July 29, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Japanese counterparts Minoru Kihara and Yoko Kamikawa announced the plan in a joint statement following a meeting in Tokyo, where they also called China’s “political, economic, and military coercion” the “greatest strategic challenge” in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Under the new plan, US forces in Japan would be “reconstituted” as a joint force headquarters reporting to the Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command to “facilitate deeper interoperability and cooperation on joint bilateral operations in peacetime and during contingencies,” according to a statement.

Headquartered in Yokota Air Base in the suburbs of Tokyo, the joint force headquarters according to Austin will “facilitate deeper interoperability and cooperation on joint bilateral operations (with Japan) in peacetime and during contingencies.”

It will be commanded by a three-star officer who will report to the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, the US Defence Secretary said.

According to a joint statement of the Security Consultative Committee Tokyo and Washington will explore co-production opportunities to expand production capacity of both the advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles and the Patriot advanced capability-3 ground-based interceptor missiles, both developed in the United States.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said that Russia will stop observing its unilateral moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-and shorter-range missiles if US long-range weapons are deployed in Germany.

“Today we are at the final stage of developing a number of such systems.” “We will take measures in kind to deploy them, taking into account the moves by the United States and its minions in Europe and other regions of the world,” Putin was cited as saying by TASS in his speech at the Main Naval Parade on the Neva River in St. Petersburg.

Washington and Berlin had earlier this month announced that the US will deploy arms in Germany starting in 2026, along with Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons. The missiles “have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe,” the White House said in a statement.

Putin, during his speech to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India to mark Russian Navy Day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg, said the US risked triggering a “Cold War-style missile crisis” with the move.

“The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes,” Putin said on Sunday.

The Kremlin had already warned in mid-July that the proposed US deployment would mean that European capitals would become targets for Russian missiles.

“We are taking steady steps towards the Cold War. All the attributes of the Cold War with the direct confrontation are returning,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state TV reporter.