The U.S. military is allegedly planning to conduct joint exercises in Japan in September to deploy the Tifong medium-range missile system inside Japan, and carry out related training, and the missile system will be evacuated after the training. Russian news agency TASS and other media reports said that the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said on August 29 that the Russian side believes that this is another move to destabilize the United States.

In response to a question from reporters, Zakharova said: ¡°We think this is another destabilizing move by Washington, another step in the direction of increasing its land-based short-range and medium-range missile potential, with the aim of deploying such systems around the world.¡±

She added that the deployment of this destabilizing missile weapon in Russia¡¯s surroundings, which poses a direct strategic threat to Russia, will have serious consequences for regional and global stability and will exacerbate tensions between nuclear powers.

Ms. Zakharova also noted that Russia had noted that Japan was accelerating its militarization, including expanding training activities and developing military-technical cooperation with the United States. "We believe that such actions are deliberately hostile in nature and ignore Russian national interests, so we will have to take appropriate military-technical measures."

Zakharova said that Russia called on the Japanese government to rethink its decision to deploy the Tifon system, "or we would consider the entire responsibility for further deterioration of the situation in the region to be on Japan."