The United States and Japan on Wednesday flaunted their “strategic focus” on defense that extends into space amid growing concerns about China and tensions over Taiwan and Korea.
“We agree that China is the most important strategic challenge for the two countries,” US chief of diplomacy Antony Blinken said at the end of a meeting in Washington with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi, as well as the American and Japanese defense chiefs.
At a joint press conference, Mr. Blinken assured that the United States “warmly welcomes” the new Japanese defense position and specified that the security and defense agreement between the two countries also applies in space.
Any incident in outer space could activate Article 5 of the defense treaty between the two countries, which says an attack on one is an attack on the other, he said.
For his part, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the stationing of a rapid reaction force of marines on the Japanese island of Okinawa by 2025 to bolster the defenses of Japan, which is concerned about growing Chinese activities in the region.
“We will be replacing an artillery regiment with this force, which will be deadlier and more mobile,” Austin said at the press conference.
He said the force “will make a major contribution to enhancing Japan’s defenses and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the term commonly used in the United States to refer to the Asia-Pacific region.
More than half of the approximately 50,000 American soldiers present on the archipelago are stationed on the island of Okinawa.
Wednesday’s meeting comes ahead of Friday’s meeting between President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is touring Europe and North America.
Mr Kishida, whose country holds the 2023 G7 presidency, visited France and Italy and was in Britain on Wednesday, where he signed a “mutual access agreement” bringing their forces together. He also has to go to Canada on Thursday.
In Washington, ministers welcomed this “modernized alliance” in the face of a new era of “strategic competition with China,” according to the head of Japanese diplomacy.
Japan approved a major overhaul of its defense doctrine in December, notably a whopping five-year increase in its military spending.
This is a crucial turning point for the country whose pacifist constitution, passed the day after its defeat at the end of World War II, prohibits it from arming itself with a real army.
The talks also focused on Taiwan and North Korea’s denuclearization, officials said.
North Korean missiles and China’s “increasing bellicose behavior” require “demonstration that you have the means to deter any potential adversary,” a senior US diplomat assured before the meeting on condition of anonymity.
“The Japanese don’t want to go down the nuclear armament route and we wouldn’t support that, but the ability to fight back is a deterrent,” he said.