Japan, US for joint missile plan to counter Taiwan crisis

Japan and the US aim to compile a joint military plan for a possible Taiwan emergency that includes deploying missiles, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.

Under the plan expected to be complied next month, the US would deploy missile units to the Nansei Islands of Japan’s southwestern Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures, and to the Philippines, the report said, citing unnamed US and Japanese sources.

The US Marine Corps’ Marine Littoral Regiment, which has High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and other weapons, will be deployed to the Nansei Islands, Kyodo said.

A US unit dealing with space, cyberspace and electromagnetic waves will be stationed in the Philippines, the report said.

Calls to Japan’s defence ministry and the embassies in Tokyo of the US and the Philippines were not answered on Sunday.

US using Taiwan to trigger crisis in Asia: Russia

The United States is using Taiwan to provoke a serious crisis in Asia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told TASS news agency in remarks published on Sunday, reiterating Moscow’s backing of China’s stance on Taiwan.

“We see that Washington, in violation of the ‘one China’ principle that it recognises, is strengthening military-political contacts with Taipei under the slogan of maintaining the ‘status quo’, and increasing arms supplies,” Rudenko told the state news agency.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rudenko’s remarks outside office hours.