BEIJING — China yesterday said its air force planes flew over the Miyako Strait — a body of water between Japan’s islands of Miyako and Okinawa — to the western Pacific Ocean for training for the first time.

China’s Defence Ministry said the training was conducted in line with international law and norms, and did not target any specific country, but the move is likely to raise tensions at a time when ties with Japan remain testy.

The strait between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island is strategically important for China as it is one of the few international waterways for its navy to access the Pacific Ocean from eastern China.

China’s ties with Japan have been strained by a long-standing territorial dispute over a string of islets in the East China Sea, known in China as the Diaoyu and in Japan as the Senkaku, which is also located close to the Miyako Strait.

The two countries have also clashed over what China sees as Japan’s refusal to take responsibility for its wartime past.

Yesterday’s day-long exercises were aimed at improving the air force’s combat capability far out at sea, China’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on its website.

“The annual exercises are planned according to a routine schedule, and in line with relevant international laws and practices, not directed at any specific country,” air force spokesman Shen Jinke said in the statement.

In Tokyo, Japan’s Defence Ministry said it had scrambled fighter jets against two Chinese H-6 bombers that flew over those waters, but there was no entry into Japan’s airspace.

Japan scrambles jets more than 900 times a year.

China’s air force has increasingly conducted drills far from its coast, state media said, as its military adopts a more assertive posture in the region.

China’s navy military aircraft was previously spotted flying above international waters between the Miyako Strait and the western Pacific Ocean.

Yesterday’s exercise came days after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s approval of a package of legislative Bills expanding the role of Japan’s armed forces, as part of a more robust military stance. The United States and its allies have welcomed the move, but China and South Korea, where painful memories of Japan’s World War II aggression linger, are wary of Mr Abe’s plans. AGENCIES