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By Zachary Keck
US and Japanese officials warn that Russian air and naval patrols in the Pacific have “increased drastically.”
Russia has drastically increased its air and naval patrols in the Asia-Pacific, a top U.S. general in the region warned on Monday.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Force, said that the events in Crimea and Ukraine are having a direct impact on how Russia is operating in the Pacific region.
“What Russia is doing in Ukraine and Crimea has a direct effect on what is happening in Asia-Pacific…. Some of the things we’ve seen is their long-range aviation, and the increase in that. They’ve come with their long-range aviation out to the coast of California. They circumnavigated Guam.”
Carlisle went on to say that Russia has also increased its presence around Korea and Japan, the latter of which it has an outstanding territorial dispute with.
Read the full story at The Diplomat