US conducts military exercise with key ally as

The U.S. and Japan carried out a joint military exercise on Wednesday following Chinese and Russian drills in the skies and seas around Japan and South Korea. U.S. nuclear-capable bombers flew over the Sea of Japan alongside Japanese fighter jets in a show of power as tensions with China escalate. 

The exercise got here just a day after Chinese and Russian bombers flew together around western Japan.

Japanese Joint Staff said that Japan’s Air Self Defense Force and the U.S. military performed the joint exercise as “the security environment surrounding our country is becoming even severer.”

It said the allies “reaffirmed the strong resolve to prevent unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force and the readiness between the SDF and the U.S. forces.”

Japan and the U.S. “reaffirmed their strong resolve to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and U.S. forces,” Japan’s defence ministry said in a assertion on Thursday.

The drills had been performed by two U.S. B-52 strategic bombers and three Japanese F-35 stealth fighter jets, as properly as three F-15 jets, close to Japan’s western airspace and above the waters between the nation and South Korea, officers said.

This was the first time that the U.S. asserted its military presence since China started military workout routines in the area last week.

The Joint Staff denied that the exercise was performed in response to a particular incident, but acknowledged the current incident in which Chinese military plane locked their radar onto Japanese jets, as properly as the China-Russia joint bomber drills performed on Tuesday, as indicators of a deteriorating security setting surrounding Japan.

Bilateral relations between the Asian international locations have worsened after Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in early November that Japan’s military might get entangled if China had been to take motion against Taiwan, the self-determining island that Beijing claims as its own.

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This follows a joint flight of Chinese and Russian strategic bombers in the East China Sea and Western Pacific on Tuesday, as properly as separate Chinese plane provider drills that prompted Japan to scramble jets, which Tokyo said had been focused by radar beams.

Japan requested for an rationalization and preventative measures; however, China denied the allegation and accused Japanese jets of interfering and endangering the Chinese exercise.

Washington harassed its “unwavering” alliance with Japan, saying the incident was not “conducive to regional peace and stability.”