(Original title: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Warns Appropriate Countermeasures Will Be Taken to Prevent Japanese Military Threats)
January 3 Financial Associated Press News (Edited by Niu Zhanlin)According to Tuesday’s TASS news agency report, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an interview that Russia believes that the Japanese government’s abandonment of peaceful development policy is a serious challenge to the security of Russia and the entire Asia-Pacific region, and warned that if such an approach continues, Russia has no choice but to take appropriate countermeasures to avert the military threat from Japan.
Rudenko said that Russia has noted that the Japanese government has accelerated the abandonment of its decades-old peaceful development policy and is on track for rapid militarization. These concrete steps include holding large-scale military exercises with countries outside the region near Russia’s borders, issuing new versions of defense documents to create attack potential, and approving unprecedented military spending.
Rudenko stressed that this move by the Japanese government poses a serious challenge to the security of the entire Asia-Pacific region. If this practice continues, we will be forced to take corresponding countermeasures to prevent military threats to Russia.
According to reports, on December 16 last year, the Japanese government cabinet meeting reviewed and approved the new versions of the “National Security Strategy”, “National Defense Strategy” and “Defense Forces Preparedness Plan “, proposing that Japan commit to having the ability to attack the enemy and other policy proposals, and will significantly increase military spending in the next 5 years.
The publication of the three documents signifies a major transformation of Japan’s defense strategy, completely abandoning the principle of “sole defense” and completely moving away from the peaceful concept of the Japanese Constitution, which will bring new threats to regional peace and stability.
Defense spending will rise to around 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by fiscal year 2027, from around 1% now, the government said. At current GDP, this would bring annual defense spending to the equivalent of about $80 billion, making Japan the third largest defense investor in the world.
Leaders of Japan’s left-wing opposition parties have also criticized the new policy. Kenta Izumi, leader of the largest opposition party in Japan’s parliament, the Constitutional Democratic Party, said the new language could allow Japan to preemptively attack other countries, a reversal of its purely defensive strategy.
In addition to purchasing American Tomahawk missiles, Japan also plans to extend the range of its missiles and ensure they can be launched from land, air or sea. In total, the plan is to spend nearly $60 billion on new missiles and missile defense.
