TOKYO: The Japanese and US navies are conducting joint exercises in the East China Sea as tension intensifies in the region following North Korea’s missile tests, local media reported on Friday.
The two sides launched the drill earlier this week, involving Japanese destroyers and a US Navy carrier strike group, the Sankei Shimbun daily and Kyodo News said, quoting unnamed Japanese and US government sources.
The Sankei said the drill was aimed at issuing a warning against nuclear-armed North Korea.
But is added the exercise was also meant to display the joint Japan-US military presence in the East China Sea, where Japan and China are locked in a long-running dispute over uninhabited islets.
In Japan they are known as the Senkakus, while China claims then as the Diaoyus.
