Russia and China send out a message to the West with joint military drill in the Sea of Japan focussing on 'landing missions' 

Four fighter jets, two J-10 and two JH-7, dispatched by the Chinese Air Force, took off from an airport in northeast China and returned after completing the drill. A KJ-200 early warning plane also took part in the exercise to give directions to the other four fighters.

The drills come less than a month after Russia and China confirmed plans to hold several joint military drills, including the practicing of anti-submarine and anti-ship exercises.

China's Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun revealed in his briefing last month that the drills would include Chinese fighter jets, destroyers, frigates and supply vessels.

Yang also said that Russia would send ships, submarines and fixed-wing aircrafts as well as practice with helicopters and marines. 

Japan has previously called on China to halt its construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea, located near the waters claimed by both nations. Both sides claim several inhabited pieces of territory in the region.

Tokyo has also questioned China's plans to use drills to tap into the rich oil reservoirs that stretch into Japanese territory.

Yang dismissed the issue, suggesting that the Japan government were 'hyping up' the issue as an excuse to promote legislation that could see Japanese troops sent to fight abroad for the first time since World War Two.

'We hope that certain people in Japan can calmly reflect on what they have done,' Mr Yang said last July.

China and Russia are veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council, and have held similar views on key policy questions like the crisis in Syria, putting them at odds with the United States and Western Europe.