Tokyo, 7 January, /AJMEDIA/
Japanese and U.S. foreign and defense ministers began a virtual ministerial security meeting Friday, aiming to further strengthen the bilateral alliance in dealing with China’s increasing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
In the “two-plus-two” meeting, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, and their U.S. counterparts Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, are also expected to discuss how to deepen cooperation in new security areas such as space and cybersecurity.
Hayashi said at the outset of the talks that Japan is “fully committed” to constantly enhancing the alliance toward realizing “a free and open Indo-Pacific,” and noted that “it is more important than ever that Japan and the United States are united and exhibit leadership” in the face of a range of challenges.
Blinken reaffirmed the alliance as a cornerstone of peace and security in the region, and said the two countries must not only strengthen the tools they have, but also develop “new ones” to address the evolving threats posed by countries seeking to undermine the international rules-based order, including China and North Korea.
He also said that the United States and Japan are launching a new research and development agreement that will make it easier for their scientists and engineers to collaborate on emerging defense-related issues, from countering hypersonic threats to advancing space-based capabilities.
A joint document is planned to be issued after the talks, which were last held in person in Tokyo in March, according to Japanese government officials.
The teleconference comes as concerns have been increasing over an escalation of Beijing’s maritime assertiveness in the East and South China seas and stepped up military pressure on Taiwan, as well as missile and nuclear threats of North Korea, which fired what it claims was a newly developed hypersonic missile on Wednesday.
The meeting is also the first security talks involving the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida became Japan’s leader in early October and Hayashi took up his post in early November.
Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff who was approved as envoy by the Senate last month, is also participating in the meeting, according to Blinken.
The ministers will also talk about role-sharing between the U.S. forces and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, as Tokyo considers all options, including a controversial plan of possessing so-called enemy base strike capabilities despite its war-renouncing Constitution, ahead of a review of its long-term guideline of the National Security Strategy by the year-end.
After the security talks, Hayashi and U.S. interim ambassador to Japan Raymond Greene will sign an agreement in Tokyo on host nation support for U.S. forces stationed in Japan, in which Tokyo pays 1.05 trillion yen ($9 billion) over five years from April.
Among other possible agenda items at the online meeting is the issue of clusters of COVID-19 cases at U.S. military facilities in Japan that have been criticized by the locals as triggering a surge in infections in some prefectures, amid the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The four ministers were initially planning to meet face to face in Washington, but a rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the United States has forced them to switch to a virtual format, the Japanese officials said.
In addition, Austin was found to have contracted the novel coronavirus on Sunday and has been working from home as his symptoms have been mild.
