Maria Zakharova Photo: CFP

The deployment of US medium-range missiles in Japan would pose a threat to Russia's security, and Russia will take proportionate measures in response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, adding that Tokyo is “deliberately fanning tensions” around China’s island of Taiwan, as it tries to justify its accelerated militarization, TASS reported. 

Moscow’s warning comes after Kyodo News reported that US military will set up temporary bases along Japan's southwestern Nansei island chain and the Philippines to deploy missile units in the event of a “Taiwan contingency,” the report said citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations on Sunday.

Zakharova accused Tokyo of “deliberately fanning tensions around Taiwan [island], including in the information space. In this way it is trying to justify its accelerated militarization and military-technical cooperation with Washington,” she told a news briefing on Wednesday.

The move also obviously reflected Washington’s provocative actions, which are taken under the slogan of "preserving the status quo," and is a violation of its own commitments to Beijing on the Taiwan question, the spokesperson said.
It is "outright pressure on China and undermine regional stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region," Zakharova noted. 

Russia has repeatedly warned the Japanese side that if, as a result of such cooperation, US medium-range missiles emerge on its territory, this will pose a real threat to the security of Russia and that it will be forced to take necessary and proportionate steps to strengthen its defense capabilities, the spokesperson said, according to the TASS report.
Zakharova referred to Russia's updated nuclear deterrence doctrine to understand the potential actions Moscow might take.

Previously, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Russia is considering possibly deploying medium-range and short-range missiles in Asia if US missiles appear in the same region, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Global Times