US, Tokyo to expand defence ties
Both say China poses “greatest challenge”
TOKYO: The top foreign and defence officials of Japan and the United States agreed Wednesday that China’s growing power poses the “greatest strategic challenge” in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, vowing to reinforce deterrence as well as expand the scope of their security treaty into space.
In the face of serious security threats, also from North Korea and Russia, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada along with their US counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin agreed to modernise and optimise the countries’ alliance at a so-called two-plus-two meeting in Washington.
The bilateral meeting, last held in January 2022, took place just weeks after Japan endorsed new security and defence strategy documents putting Tokyo on a path to acquiring “counterstrike” capabilities, or the ability to hit enemy bases should the need arise, with the potential purchase of hundreds of U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles.
“The ministers concurred that China’s foreign policy seeks to reshape the international order to its benefit and to employ China’s growing political, economic, military and technological power to that end,” a joint statement said. “This behavior is of serious concern to the alliance and the entire international community.”
With the Japanese and US forces seeking to enhance their interoperability, the foreign and defence chiefs said they will deepen cooperation toward the “effective employment” of Japan’s long-range strike capabilities and promote joint research and development of cutting-edge defence equipment.
Such endeavours will include the start of technological research on advanced materials, in response to China’s progress in the development of hypersonic weapons.
“We heartily welcome the new strategies, especially because there is, as we’ve all said, a remarkable convergence between our strategies and Japan’s,” Mr Blinken said at a joint press conference.
Under Japan’s updated strategies, which also reflect concern over Russia’s war in Ukraine and its implications for Taiwan, Japan vowed to substantially raise its defence spending, setting a target of doubling the budget to 2% of gross domestic product in fiscal 2027.
The approval of the documents in mid-December marked a further step away from Japan’s exclusively selfdefence-oriented posture since the end of WW2. The move caused controversy in the country but has been welcomed by US officials.
“Japan’s commitments to substantially increase its defence spending and to invest in defence institutions and infrastructure and capabilities will accelerate our alliance’s efforts,” Mr Austin said.
In an attempt to bolster deterrence and deal with new security challenges, they agreed that attacks to, from and within space could invoke Article 5 of their security treaty, which obliges the United States to defend Japan.
As part of the ongoing realignment of US military forces in the region, the statement touched on a plan to reorganise the 12th Marine Regiment in Okinawa, near Taiwan, into a littoral regiment by 2025.
The envisaged regiment will be designed to have improved response and mobile capabilities as China’s actions around remote southwestern Japan islands and Taiwan have increased the risks of conflict.