Russia says it could combine with China if they faced a threat

Russia has declared that its partnership with China could see the two nations combine potential if faced with a threat from the United States. 

I would like to remind you that Moscow and Beijing will respond to double containment by the United States with double counteraction, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said yesterday. 

She said Russia and China had a strategic partnership that was not aggressive in its intent, but affirmed that the two would combine to give an appropriate rebuff to any aggressive policy of attack implemented against them. 

The alarming comments came amid news that the US had expressed an interest in stationing a Typhon mid-range missile system in Japan.

It is clear that both Russia and China will react to the emergence of additional and very significant missile threats, and their reaction will be far from being political, Zakharova told reporters.

The issue is likely to be a topic of discussion for Vladimir Putin, who today meets with Chinas top diplomat Wang Yi in St Petersburg on the sidelines of a security meeting among BRICS member states.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan July 3, 2024

US Army launch of a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile from the Typhon Mid-Range Capability system

Zakharovas alarming comments came in response to news that the US had expressed an interest in stationing a Typhon mid-range missile system in Japan

Russias President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping signed a no limits partnership deal in 2022, less than three weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine.

In May this year they agreed to deepen what they called their comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation for a new era.

The two countries have not declared a formal military alliance - although Putin last week described them as allies in every sense of the word - but their militaries have staged a slew of exercises together, including large-scale naval drills that started on Tuesday. 

Putin, overseeing the launch of the manoeuvres, warned the United States against attempts to outgun Russia by building up its military power in the Asia-Pacific region.

The comments by Putin and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova come just days after US Army secretary Christine Wormuth said American and Japanese defence officials were discussing the potential deployment of Americas Typhon missile system in Japan for extended military drills. 

Speaking at the Defense News Conference in Virginia earlier this month, Wormuth said she had already held discussions on the topic with Japans defence minister Minoru Kihara, and that US officials had made our interest in (deploying the system) clear to the Japanese self-defence forces, according to the Japan Times.

The US previously deployed the Typhon launcher in the Indo-Pacific region earlier this year during joint military exercises in the northern Philippines.

That was the first time it had done so since the Trump administration withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, which had banned land-based missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500km, both conventional and nuclear.

But the implications of deploying such systems to Japan are profound. 

The Typhon is a land-based platform capable of firing both Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 missiles. 

The Tomahawks can deliver precision strikes on land and sea targets, while the SM-6 offers both offensive strike capability and defence against aircraft and hypersonic missile threats. 

With a range of 500 to 1,800km (1,100 miles), a Typhon system stationed in Japan brings huge swathes of the Chinese mainland within striking range, and would also cover Taiwan and large parts of the South China Sea. 

It would also confirm Japans place as a key ally within the US defence strategy in the Indo-Pacific, and make it a potential target for Beijings own missile forces. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, and Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, left, attend the BRICS and BRICS Plus High-Level Security Officials meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024

Russias President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinas President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders summit in Astana on July 3, 2024

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy (L) made a rare joint visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity

The US is reported to be ready to relax its ban on British-supplied long-range weapons, which use American technology, being used outside Ukraine over retaliation fears

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, and Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, left, attend the BRICS and BRICS Plus High-Level Security Officials meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024

Russian and Chinese concerns over the possible stationing of US missiles in the Indo-Pacific come as senior Ukrainian government officials press US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Minister David Lammy to allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles at targets deep inside Russia.

The US and UK have thus far refused to permit Ukraine to strike targets on Russian soil with their long-range weapons over fears that this could escalate the ongoing conflict.

But there are rumours the long-held ban could soon be lifted.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday his administration was working that out now when asked if he would lift restrictions on Kyivs use of missiles such as ATACMS.

And Biden is set to discuss the issue further with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow suspects a US decision to let Kyiv fire such missiles into Russia has already been taken.

It (our response) will be an appropriate one, said Peskov.

The involvement of the United States of America and European countries in the conflict over Ukraine is direct, and each new step increases the degree of this involvement, he said.

Meanwhile, Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and a close ally of President Putin, said Moscow would be forced to use more powerful and destructive weapons against Ukraine if Kyiv started firing long-range Western missiles at Russia.

Washington and other European states are becoming parties to the war in Ukraine, Volodin said on Telegram.