Japan says U.S. B52 bomber flights over China's newly declared "air defence identification zone" were nothing out of the ordinary, demands China withdraw its claims over the zone immediately. Full Story: Japan on Wednesday defended the United States' decision to send two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers on a training mission over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera says it was U.S. planes flying where they had always flown before and was nothing unusual. The White House urged Beijing to resolve its dispute with Japan over the islands diplomatically, without resorting to "threats or inflammatory language". Onodera says the publication of China's Air Defence Identification Zone was completely unilateral and the international community including Japan and US want to see it retracted. China published coordinates for an East China Sea Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves. Tokyo says Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida had received reassurances from the United States Secretary of State John Kerry that Washington was supportive of Japan's stance on this issue. The zone, about two thirds the size of Britain, covers the skies over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute that China has with Japan. The B-52 bombers carried out the flight, part of a long-planned exercise, on Monday, according to a U.S. military official. The dispute has flared before a trip to the region by Vice-President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan early next week and also has stops in China and South Korea. The Pentagon says the B-52 training exercise "involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam", referring to the U.S. South Pacific island with large military U.S. bases. Annual U.S.-Japan naval exercises are also taking place in waters off the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Kyushu, to the east of China's new zone. The drills, which involve the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, were planned before China's announcement of the zone. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, conflicting with claims from Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam. For more news and videos visit ☛ http://ntd.tv Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision Add us on Facebook ☛ http://on.fb.me/s5KV2C

• published: 28 Nov 2013
• views: 6181