Japan buys Tomahawk missiles and doubles its defense budget. The Philippines is planning joint patrols in the South China Sea with Australia, the United States and Japan.
A year since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s Russian-Chinese alliance has opened up an opportunity for the United States and its partners in the Pacific to deepen a once-damaged relationship against Beijing. About it informs CNN.
In the past few months, Japan has said it will double its defense budget and buy long-range weapons from the US. South Korea, in turn, recognized that stability in the Taiwan Strait is important to the country’s security. The Philippines is talking about joint patrols in the South China Sea with Australia, Japan and the United States.
Photo: Philippine Department of Defense | Philippine Coast Guard
According to analysts, such events should have been expected even without a war in Ukraine, but the invasion and support for the actions of the Kremlin from the PRC contributed to this.
Journalists note that these are perhaps the most notable initiatives, but the matter is not limited to them – and China is increasingly “isolated in its own backyard”, because. refuses to denounce the invasion of its partner’s sovereign country while maintaining military pressure on Taiwan.
Japan’s constitution after World War II limited the armed forces to “self-defense.” Now, Tokyo plans to buy long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States, with which it will be possible to strike at China as well.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a major defense conference in Singapore last summer that today’s Ukraine is tomorrow’s East Asia.
“The Japanese have certainly taken notice of what is happening in Ukraine, and it has made them feel more vulnerable as a state,” said John Bradford, senior fellow at the School of International Studies. S. Rajaratman in Singapore.
The main threat to Japan comes from China, which recently announced that the military budget for 2023 will be increased by 7.2%. This trend has been observed for the third consecutive year in the last decade.
Recall that, according to researchers from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China is winning the West in the technology race.
Previously Focus reported that an American reconnaissance aircraft appeared near Taiwan, and China, in turn, raised a fighter jet into the sky to intercept it.
