The Pacific skies are gradually entering a riskier phase, even if it gets scant attention outside of Asia.
Russia and China last week wrapped up their fifth consecutive yearly joint naval and air patrol exercise, a show of military solidarity from the Sea of Japan into the western Pacific.
These are not discrete exercises. Indeed, they are the public expression of an increasingly close military relationship between Beijing and Moscow, one developed purposely to disrupt the link between the United States and its allies in the region. The most obvious example of this is evident by looking at the patrol routes — across the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the Miyako Strait — which send a clear message that Japan is in their crosshairs.
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