TOKYO — The top diplomatic and defense officials from the United States and Japan announced Sunday that their nations would take concrete steps to bolster their military alliance because of the growing threat from China in the region.
Those steps include establishing a joint force headquarters that would answer to the U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific, according to a statement issued by the two governments’ top officials and the committee that they oversaw. They also call for increasing coproduction of air-to-air missiles and air defense interceptor missiles.
“The U.S. will have a direct leadership role in planning and leading U.S. forces in both peacetime and in potential crises,” Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said of the new headquarters at a news conference later Sunday. “And that will give us an opportunity to work more closely together to ensure greater peace and stability.”
The statement framed these changes in the alliance relationship mainly as a response to aggressive moves by China in East Asia. The statement focused on China’s actions in the East China Sea, South China Sea and beyond while also mentioning hostile activity by Russia and North Korea.
The governments reaffirmed the importance of the mutual-defense clause in their treaty because of the “increasingly severe security environment caused by recent moves of regional actors,” they said.
One of the top issues cited was the East China Sea, which Japan and China both claim part of. The U.S. and Japanese senior officials said their governments reiterated their strong opposition to China’s “intensifying attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion.”
Blinken and the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, were in Tokyo on Sunday to meet with their Japanese counterparts in what is commonly called a 2+2 dialogue.
Such meetings take place regularly, but this one had added significance because of President Joe Biden’s announcement last Sunday that he would not seek reelection. That means America will have a new leader in January, most likely either Kamala Harris, the current vice president, or Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor. So foreign leaders have many questions about how a new president will approach foreign policy and America’s alliances.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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