The United States and Japan are considering a joint military maneuver in which their troops will simulate recapturing an uninhabited island from foreign forces

The United States and Japan are considering a joint military maneuver in which their troops will simulate recapturing an uninhabited island from foreign forces.

 

Japan's Kyodo news agency on Saturday quoted unidentified sources in Tokyo as saying that the drill will be carried out in an uninhabited island in Okinawa before the broader joint exercises scheduled to kick off in early November.

 

The US and Japanese forces would use boats and helicopters to land on the island as a part of the maneuver, the Japanese news agency said.

 

The drill comes as Japan and China are gridlocked in a dispute over the sovereignty of a chain of islands, known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese, in the East China Sea.

 

The uninhabited islands which sit on top of valuable resources are currently under Japan's administration but claimed by China and Taiwan, too.

 

The joint drill will be conducted in the tiny island of Irisunajima, which is in the East China Sea but hundreds of miles away from the disputed islands, the report said.

 

Trade between the two global economic heavyweights has faltered over the islands row.