“To higher meet the challenges of right now and tomorrow, the USA will improve the U.S. Forces Japan to a Joint Power Headquarters with expanded missions and operational obligations,” Austin stated. “This would be the most vital change to U.S. Forces Japan since its creation, and one of many strongest enhancements in our army ties with Japan in 70 years.”
Tokyo is stepping up plans to arrange for its potential function if China invades Taiwan. It will likely be a key base for any American troops that might be deployed in such an occasion.
“We proceed to see the PRC [People’s Republic of China] partaking in coercive habits and attempting to alter the established order within the East and South China Sea, round Taiwan and all through the area,” Austin stated in a press release.
Austin and Blinken additionally reiterated guarantees for Japan by way of the nuclear deterrence that the U.S. is able to present Japan with within the occasion of conflicts, after a first-of-its-kind ministerial session between Washington and Tokyo on what they known as “prolonged deterrence.”
On Trump, Blinken stated the U.S. and Japan “have an alliance that is endured, however not solely endured for many years, it is gotten stronger. … Exactly due to that curiosity, I believe it is going to — greater than I believe, I do know it is going to be sustained, regardless of the result of elections in both of our international locations.”
Japan serves as a base for the U.S. to challenge army energy within the Indo-Pacific, internet hosting 54,000 American troops, a whole lot of U.S. plane and Washington’s solely forward-deployed plane provider strike group.
