(MENAFN) In an effort to counter threats from China and Russia, Japan says it would develop and mass-produce a cruise missile and a high-velocity ballistic missile.

Although the procurement plan included in the defense ministry's annual budget request was little described, it clearly breaks with a long-standing range restriction placed on Japan's constitutionally restrained Self-Defense Force.

“China continues to threaten to use force to unilaterally change the status quo and is deepening its alliance with Russia,” the ministry stated in its budget demand.

“It is also applying pressure around Taiwan with supposed military exercises and has not renounced the use of military force as a way to unite Taiwan with the rest of China,” it asserted.

After US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan earlier this month, China conducted extensive military drills that included firing ballistic missiles, raising concerns about its regional aspirations. In waters less than 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Japan, five of the missiles made landfall.

The Senkaku Islands, also known as Diaoyu in China, and the Northern Territories, sometimes known as the Kuril Islands in Russia, are the subject of long-standing territorial disputes between Tokyo and Beijing and Moscow.

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