"Our adversaries China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have forged an unholy alliance to disrupt and destabilize the globe," he said in a statement released by his office in early December. "A collective security agreement has the potential to deter aggression and protect the forces of democracy in the Indo-Pacific," the statement added. "It is crucial that the democracies of the region and the world work in unison to combat this rising threat."
On December 14, South Korea scrambled fighters when two Chinese and four Russian military aircraft entered its Air Defense Identification Zone without warning. Japan also had air units on station over the Sea of Japan. On Monday, North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile from a mobile launcher outside Pyongyang, the weapon flying on a lofted trajectory before landing in the Sea of Japan about 1,000 kilometers (621 mile
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