US and Japan strengthen their alliance against China

The United States and Japan have released theirs “strategic alignment” in a defense that extends into space, in the face of growing concerns over China and tensions around Taiwan and North Korea.

“We agree that China represents the most important strategic challenge” to both countries, said the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, after a meeting in Washington with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, as well as with American and Japanese defense leaders.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Blinken assured that the United States “warmly welcomed” Japan’s new defense stance and made it clear that the security and defense agreement between the two countries also applied to space.

Any incident in space could trigger Article 5 of the defense treaty between the two countries which states that an attack on one is an attack on the other, he said.

For his part, the American defense minister, Lloyd Austin, announced the deployment by 2025 of a marine rapid reaction force on the Japanese island of Okinawa to strengthen the defense of Japan, increasingly concerned about China’s activities in the region. “We will replace an artillery regiment with this force which will be more lethal and more mobile”Mr. Austin said at the press conference.

He claimed that this force ” contribute to[it] importantly to improve Japan’s defense and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region”the expression commonly used in the United States to designate Asia-Pacific without Chinese domination.

More than half of the approximately 50,000 US troops in the archipelago are stationed on the island of Okinawa.

Review of Japanese defense doctrine

Wednesday’s meeting preceded Friday’s meeting between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is touring Europe and North America. Mr Kishida, whose country holds the G7 presidency in 2023, visited France and Italy, and was in the UK on Wednesday, where he signed an agreement “reciprocal access agreement” approaching their armed forces. He is also expected to travel to Canada on Thursday.

In Washington, ministers welcomed it “modern alliance” face a new era “Strategic competition with China”according to the head of Japanese diplomacy.

In December, Japan approved a major overhaul of its defense doctrine, notably including a colossal increase in its military spending over five years, as well as strengthening its “reply”including targeting missile launch sites in the event of an attack.

This is a crucial turning point for the country, whose pacifist constitution, adopted in the aftermath of the defeat at the end of the Second World War, prohibits in principle from having a real army.

The Taiwan issue and the denuclearization of North Korea were also a focus of the talks, officials said.

“I’m not going to speculate with Mr. Xi [le président chinois] but I can tell you that what we have been observing for some time is a very provocative behavior by the Chinese forces”said Mr. Austin, as he emitted “serious doubts” about an imminent attack on Taiwan.