U.S., Japan up military cooperation in response to China

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defense Minister Kihara Minoru on Sunday outlined plans for their countries to bolster their alliance. U.S. Forces in Japan will eventually become a joint forces headquarters reporting to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The defense ministers’ plans also included modernizing the two countries’ command-and-control systems and expanding their joint training exercises. Japan and the United States also promised to integrate their defense industrial bases in general and to increase missile production, specifically.

How does this factor into the larger picture of U.S. and Japanese alliances in the Pacific? Both countries promised to increase their mutual alliances with Australia, South Korea, and the Philippines. The United States and Japan will conduct more missile defense training exercises with South Korea, the statement said. They will also join Australia in more research and intelligence-gathering activities. Both defense ministers committed to helping the Philippines build its military capacity and increase its maritime security.

What did Japan and the United States say about China? Austin and Kihara agreed that China has actively destabilized the region with aggressive maneuvers in the South China Sea. Beijing has tried to reshape the power hierarchy within the Indo-Pacific region at the expense of its neighbors, the ministers said.

They condemned Beijing’s aggressive actions toward Japan regarding a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands and expressed concern about Chinese ships’ behavior toward Philippine vessels around the Second Thomas Shoal. China and the Philippines reached an agreement last week to decrease the possibility of conflict surrounding resupply missions to Filipino marines on the Second Thomas Shoal. Austin and Kihara also called for maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

What was China’s response to the meeting? On an official social media account, China said it was not provoking trouble and was committed to working out maritime disputes with the countries directly concerned. It urged Japan and the United States to stop confrontation and meddling with Chinese affairs.

Dig deeper: Read Erica Kwong’s report in WORLD Magazine about how Taiwan became a democracy.