Jason Douglas

One is the fact that this is a joint exercise.

Now, this was a long flight.

This was eight hours, according to the Russian state media.

The second reason why it's notable is this is, of course, happening at a time when tensions between China and Japan are pretty intense, right?

So there has been this sort of diplomatic spat, which has been rumbling on for a month now.

Beijing was extremely upset at some remarks that Japanese Prime Minister Sane Takeuchi made in Parliament about a month ago, where she said that it was a possibility that Japan could get pulled into any conflict over Taiwan.

So this is certainly something to take note of.

We haven't heard from any senior officials in the administration, which strikes many people as pretty unusual.

We haven't heard anything from the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense.

We haven't heard anything from the President himself.

President Trump is very focused on trying to secure a trade deal with China and that he is anxious to make sure that these kind of diplomatic disputes between China and US allies do not derail that.

Our reporting indicates that he in fact told Prime Minister Takeuchi that

she should take care not to provoke Beijing on this issue, though the Japanese government has denied that.