Russia will not cease military cooperation with Japan or any other countries from the Asia-Pacific Region, a source from the Defense Ministry said on Monday.
“The [Pacific] Fleet has ample military force that can form ship groups to maintain stability in the regions. There are no plans to halt military cooperation with countries in the region, including with Japan,” the source said.
Earlier in February, Igor Korotchenko, a member of the Russia’s Defense Ministry’s Public Council said Russia must start building infrastructure near the port of Vladivostok as soon as possible to accommodate two Mistral class amphibious assault ships to be built in France for the Russian Navy.
The ships are expected to join Russia’s Pacific Fleet and be deployed to protect the disputed South Kuril Islands. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier in February ordered naval and ground-based units deployed on four Kuril Islands to be equipped with advanced weaponry.
“This [the early construction of infrastructure] will ensure their immediate use of these ships in the Vladivostok area upon entering service with the Pacific Fleet in 2014,” Korotchenko said.
A high-ranking Russian official in the General Staff of the armed forces said last week that Moscow would deploy reinforcements to include short- and long-range air defense missile systems including the latest S-400 Triumf system to the southern Kuril Islands to protect Russia’s sovereignty in the Far East.
The General Staff official said S-400 missile defense systems could be deployed to the islands to protect them from possible attacks.
Moscow and Paris signed an intergovernmental agreement to jointly build four Mistral class ships on January 25.
Japan has been angered by visits to the islands by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in November, as well as a number of other top Russian officials following suit.
Under the Russian-French agreement the first Mistral-class ship, with a price tag of 720 million euros, is expected to be built in late 2013-early 2014 and the second in late 2014-early 2015.
A Mistral-class ship is capable of carrying 16 helicopters, four landing vessels, 70 armored vehicles, and 450 personnel.
Russia will also invest heavily in the modernization of the defense infrastructure on the four disputed Kuril Islands, called the Northern Territories by Japan, and in the upgrade of weaponry used by units deployed on these islands.
The South Kuril Islands were seized from Japan by Soviet troops at the end of World War Two and remain a source of tension between Moscow and Tokyo. Russia claims that the islands are “unalienable Russian territory.”
