Defence minister says ‘strong protest’ lodged with Moscow amid growing concerns about Russian and Chinese military cooperation in the region

Japan said its fighter jets used flares for the first time to warn a Russian reconnaissance aircraft to leave Japanese airspace.

An undisclosed number of F-15 and F-35 warplanes were scrambled and fired flares on Monday after the Russian aircraft apparently ignored their radio warnings, Japanese defence minister Minoru Kihara said.