CNA Explains: Is the US strengthening Asian alliances against China during a ‘critical moment’?
What is the US doing in Japan amid these tensions?
On Sunday, foreign and defence ministers from Japan and the US announced several measures to address what they said was an “evolving security environment”, noting various threats from China including its muscular maritime activities.
The allies described China as the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the Indo-Pacific region, calling Beijing’s behaviour in the South and East China Seas “provocative”.
America said it would revamp its military command in Japan from what is largely an administrative headquarters to a joint operational one.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called this upgrade the “most significant change” to US Forces Japan since its creation. The headquarters will serve as a counterpart to the Japan Self-Defense Forces Joint Operations Command, which is set to go into effect in March 2025.
Austin said the command upgrade was “not based on any threat from China” but reflected the allies’ desire to work more closely and effectively.
“The strategy of coordination that Japan and the United States are trying to enhance is really significant,” Kei Koga, Associate Professor at the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme in Nanyang Technological University’s School of Social Sciences, told CNA’s East Asia Tonight programme.
“The coordination of military planning and policy planning together – they could actually (build on the) effectiveness of the joint cooperation among the agencies in Japan.”
Koga noted that both countries have “really similar” perspectives on China, with a long history of cooperation in terms of defence, politics and diplomacy.
