The US and Japan have announced steps to strengthen their military alliance as part of a US-led buildup in the region aimed at China.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are visiting the region and held talks with their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo on Sunday. One step the four officials announced was a US plan to upgrade its command center in Japan.
The overhaul of the command center will give US Forces Japan more authority to conduct joint operations with the Japanese military without having to go through US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.
“The United States will upgrade the US Forces Japan to a joint force headquarters with expanded missions and operational responsibilities,” Austin told reporters. “This will be the most significant change to US Forces Japan since its creation and one of the strongest improvements in our military ties with Japan in 70 years.”
Japan hosts more than 54,000 US troops, the largest foreign US military presence in the world. About 70% of US bases in Japan are in the Okinawa Prefecture, which accounts for only 0.6% of Japan’s territory. The people of Okinawa overwhelmingly want the US to reduce its military presence, but Washington and Tokyo are forcing a construction project to relocate a base against the wishes of the prefecture’s governor.
The US and Japan also announced on Sunday plans to increase cooperation in developing weapons and for more joint training and military exercises. The US has been forming a trilateral military alliance with Japan and the Philippines, and the officials pledged to continue boosting that cooperation.
“The Ministers supported increased bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the Philippines, including on maritime security and capacity building,” the US and Japanese officials said in a joint statement. Austin and Blinken are headed to the Philippines next and are expected to announce new US military support for Manila.
The joint statement released by the US and Japan also labeled China as the “greatest strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. They accused China of seeking to “reshape the international order for its own benefit at the expense of others.”
While in Japan, Blinken held a separate meeting on Monday with foreign ministers from the Quad nations. The Quad is an informal military alliance formed by the US, Japan, India, and Australia. In a joint statement, the ministers hit out at China’s activity in the South and East China Seas.
“We are seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,” the Quad ministers said.
When asked about the Quad statement, China said it was the Quad countries that were stoking tensions in the region. “The Quad keeps chanting the slogan of a free and open Indo-Pacific, and all the while, it has been scaremongering, inciting antagonism and confrontation, and holding back other countries’ development,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian.
“Some countries outside the region have frequently sent advanced military aircraft and vessels to the South China Sea to flex their muscles and create tension, and have formed various groupings and incited division and confrontation in the region, all of which make them the biggest threat and challenge to regional peace and stability,” Lin added.
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