Ahead of Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, scheduled for September 23, Russia decided to join China in presenting a united diplomatic front. Russia has demanded that Japan remove U.S. Typhon missile systems from Japanese territory. The systems are capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 1,800 km, as well as multipurpose SM-6 missiles with a range of up to 500 km. According to the Russian foreign ministry, a formal note of protest was sent on September 3. "A demand has been addressed to the Japanese side to cease such practices and withdraw the aforementioned systems from its territory," the ministry said. Moscow said the deployment of such systems on Japanese territory was "unacceptable, regardless of the duration or manner of their deployment," and claimed that it posed a threat to Russia’s national security as well as to "regional peace and stability." "If such activities continue, Russia will take the necessary countermeasures to ensure an adequate level of its defense capability," a Russian foreign ministry representative said. The Typhon system was deployed in Kagoshima Prefecture in June as part of the Valiant Shield exercises conducted jointly with U.S. forces. Comment from me: Beijing has its own critical interest in this situation, as the range of Typhon systems - up to 2,000 km when equipped with Tomahawk missiles - directly puts key Chinese coastal cities, military bases, and critical maritime routes in the Pacific within reach.