Moscow, Aug 22 (IANS): Moscow is closely monitoring Tokyo's naval presence near Russia's borders and is concerned over a potential shift in Japan's non-nuclear policy, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

Japan's plans to erode its non-nuclear status by joining US nuclear missions, holding multilateral exercises with the involvement of strategic aircraft for nuclear missions, and considering the deployment of US medium-range missiles on its territory are particularly concerning, Zakharova said during a weekly briefing on Wednesday.

She said that Moscow was closely monitoring Tokyo's increased naval activities near Russia's borders in the Fast East with the involvement of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members from outside the region, reports Xinhua news agency.

Japan's policy ultimately poses concrete risks to regional stability and security, she added.

This reaction is followed by the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise, an annually-staged summertime South Korea-US-Japan military exercise featuring field manoeuvers, computer-simulated command post exercise and civil defence drills, which kicked off on Monday and is scheduled to continue until August 29.

During the 11-day exercise, the combined forces planned to expand field training and live-fire drills across multiple domains to strengthen interoperability and showcase their combined capabilities, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

The JCS noted that the combined forces will further strengthen capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction.