China and Russia conducted, on Tuesday, a joint air force patrol over the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, prompting South Korea to mobilize its fighter jets. South Korea considered that the jets had infiltrated the air defense identification zone, which led it to act for security reasons.
The Russian and Chinese air forces conducted a joint military air patrol by entering the South Korean air defense identification zone on Tuesday, June 6. This type of patrol, the sixth since 2019, prompted Seoul to deploy its own aviation for security reasons.
China and Russia conducted joint air force patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Tuesday, as South Korea said it had deployed fighter jets in response to warplanes near its airspace.
South Korea said four Russian and four Chinese military aircraft had entered its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) around lunchtime on Tuesday, prompting it to scramble fighter planes.
An ADIZ is an area wider than a country’s airspace in which it tries to control aircraft for security reasons, but the concept is not defined in any international treaty.
The incident comes after the defense ministers of South Korea, Japan and the United States on Saturday agreed to set up real-time data sharing on North Korean missile launches by the end of the year.
During a March summit in Moscow, Chinese leader Xi Jinping invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Beijing and the two leaders declared that ties were “entering a new era”.
Analysts say China holds the upper hand in the relationship with Russia, and that its sway is growing as Moscow’s international isolation deepens.
Beijing and Moscow were Cold War allies with a tempestuous relationship but in recent years have drawn closer, especially in the economic and military realms.
Both countries have touted what they call a “no-limits” partnership and played up what they frame as a close friendship between presidents Xi and Putin.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
