Any expansion of NATO military drills with Japan would escalate tensions, TASS report

Any expansion of military drills between the NATO military alliance and Japan would only escalate tensions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said on Monday, the TASS state news agency reported.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Reuters earlier this month that Russia’s deepening military cooperation with North Korea had underlined the need for Tokyo to forge closer ties with NATO as regional security threats became increasingly intertwined.