Hike payments for US troops: Trump

‘US allies should contribute more to shared defence’

TOKYO, Nov 16, (RTRS): US President Donald Trump has asked Japan to quadruple annual payments for US forces stationed there to around $8 billion, Foreign Policy reported, part of Washington’s efforts to press its allies to increase their defence spending.

The current agreement that covers the 54,000 US troops stationed in Japan expires in March 2021.

The demand was made to Japanese officials during a trip to the region in July by John Bolton, at that time Trump’s national security adviser, and Matt Pottinger, who was then the Asia director for the National Security Council, the US global affairs magazine said, citing unidentified former US officials.

A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said the report was incorrect and no US-Japan negotiations on a new agreement have taken place.

According to Kyodo news agency, Japanese officials told Bolton the increase is “unrealistic”, saying Japan already pays a greater share of stationing costs than other allies.

A US State Department spokesman said in an emailed statement: “The President has made clear that allies and partners should contribute more to their shared defence.”

Negotiations to renew the agreement will start in the first half of next year, the spokesman said, adding that the US commitment to Japan’s defence was “unwavering”.

Japan hosts the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, including the only permanently forward deployed carrier strike group, as well as the Third Marine Expeditionary Force.

In addition to defending Japan, those units use the archipelago as a base for operations in the wider Asia-Pacific region where US military power acts as a counterbalance to China’s growing influence.

Trump has also insisted Seoul shoulder more of the cost of the US military presence in South Korea, where it serves as deterrence against North Korea, and has floated the idea of pulling US troops from the peninsula.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper pressed South Korea on Friday to pay more for the cost of stationing US troops in the country and to maintain an intelligence-sharing pact with its other Asian ally, Japan, that Seoul is about to let lapse.

Speaking after a high-level defence policy meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo, Esper also said the two countries must be flexible with their joint military drills to back diplomatic efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear programme.

But he stopped short of announcing any new reduction in military exercises that North Korea has sharply condemned.

North Korea said on Thursday it had turned down a US offer for new talks ahead of a year-end deadline Pyongyang has set for Washington to show more flexibility in negotiations.

Peace

As uncertainty hangs over the troubled peace push, the United States and South Korea are simultaneously scrambling to clinch an agreement in the coming weeks to cover next year’s costs of maintaining a 28,500-strong US military presence aimed at deterring North Korea.

South Korea, Esper said, “is a wealthy country and could and should pay more” for the US military deployment.

“It is crucial that we conclude the (defence pact) ... with increased burden-sharing by the Republic of Korea before the end of the year,” Esper told a news conference.

Jeong said he and Esper shared the view that the cost-sharing pact being negotiated should be fair and mutually agreeable, but it was unclear if they shared any sense of what a fair amount might be.

A South Korean lawmaker said last week that US officials had demanded up to $5 billion a year, more than five times what Seoul agreed to pay this year under a one-year deal.

US President Donald Trump has rattled South Korea with his insistence it take on a greater contribution for the deterrence against North Korea.

A survey by the government-affiliated Korea Institute for National

Unification released last week showed 96% of South Koreans opposed paying more for the US military presence.

North Korea said in a commentary from state media KCNA on Friday that the US demand for a greater South Korean contribution to defence costs was an attempt to “exploit” and tighten its control over South Korea.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry announced another round of defence cost talks would be held on Nov 18-19 in Seoul.

After his talks with Jeong, Esper warned that South Korea’s decision to end an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, called GSOMIA, would impact military readiness – presumably by slowing the ability of the US allies to directly share information about North Korean military activity.

“The only ones who benefit from expiration of GSOMIA and continued friction between Seoul and Tokyo are Pyongyang and Beijing,” Esper said.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), hosted a video teleconference from Seoul on Friday with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, during which South Korea’s Park Han-ki stressed the importance of trilateral cooperation, its JCS said.

Jeong said both South Korea and Japan would make efforts to narrow differences before the pact expires on Nov 23. But there was no sign of an imminent breakthrough.

Relations between the neighbours plunged after South Korea’s top court last year ordered Japanese firms to compensate some wartime forced labourers. Japan imposed export controls on South Korea, citing unspecified security reasons.

During a meeting with Esper and Milley later on Friday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said it was difficult to share intelligence with Japan which raised security concerns in restricting exports, though he acknowledged the need for three-way cooperation, Moon’s spokeswoman told a briefing.

Esper said he would also ask Japan to make efforts for an amicable resolution of the issue.