The United States and Japan are working to modernize their military alliance in the face of threats from China, North Korea and Russia, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday (June 1st) in Tokyo. The senior U.S. official is visiting Tokyo for brief bilateral talks before heading to the Shangri-La Security Summit in Singapore.
Ahead of a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yasukazu Hamada, he recalled that the two countries were facing "common challenges related to China's coercive behavior," "North Korea's dangerous provocations and Russia's cruel war in Ukraine." "But we are united by our common interests and values. And we are taking important steps to modernize our alliances and strengthen our deterrence," he added.
Lloyd Austin cited trilateral cooperation with Australia and South Korea, as well as increasing the "pace, range and scale" of maneuvers and training. U.S. and Japanese forces are becoming "more versatile, resilient and mobile," he said, welcoming Japan's decision to build a counterattack capability and improve information exchange with Washington.
China, "unprecedented strategic challenge"
Lloyd Austin arrived in Japan on Wednesday, hours after North Korea tried, unsuccessfully, to launch a spy satellite using technology banned by United Nations resolutions. Pyongyang has stepped up its missile tests over the past year and Japan is also facing mounting pressure from Chinese ships around islets administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.
In late 2022, Japan, which has a pacifist constitution, unveiled a major shift in its national security doctrine, pledging to increase its defense budget to 2 percent of national GDP by 2027 and calling China an "unprecedented strategic challenge" to its own security.