Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Friday alongside U.S. President Joe Biden to modernize his nation’s navy, warning that Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine had opened a harmful new period and will embolden China.
Welcoming Kishida on the White House, Biden hailed the Japanese authorities’s announcement final month that it’s going to double protection spending over the subsequent 5 years and develop new capabilities.
“Let me be crystal clear: the United States is fully, thoroughly, completely committed to the alliance and more importantly to Japan’s defense,” Biden mentioned.
Japan has been formally pacifist since its defeat in World War II however has been shedding previous sensitivities as China quickly expands its navy and North Korea relentlessly assessments missiles.
In a speech after his White House assembly, Kishida solid his protection technique as a historic turning level within the U.S.-Japan alliance in the identical league because the mutual protection treaty of 1960.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has marked the complete end of the post-Cold War world,” Kishida mentioned at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
“If we let this unilateral change in the status quo by force go unchallenged, it will happen elsewhere in the world, including Asia,” Kishida mentioned, in probably a veiled allusion to fears of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
The relationship with China, Kishida mentioned, “is the most critical challenge for both Japan and the United States.”
‘MAJOR SHIFT’ ON RUSSIA
Japan has joined Western powers in imposing sanctions on Russia and has offered humanitarian, though not navy, help to Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin invaded in February 2022.
Kishida referred to as it a “major shift” in Japan’s coverage towards Russia following marathon however unsuccessful talks to resolve a dispute over islands seized by Soviet troops shortly after Tokyo’s give up in 1945.
Kishida was visiting Washington on the finish of a tour of Group of Seven nations as Japan begins its 12 months main the elite membership of business democracies, during which the nation is proud to be the one non-Western member.
“Japan’s participation in the measures against Russia transformed the fight against Russia’s aggression against Ukraine from a transatlantic one to a global one,” Kishida mentioned.
Biden within the Oval Office assembly hailed Japan’s firmness on Ukraine.
“We’re stepping up to hold Putin accountable for his unprovoked war in Ukraine and I want to thank you, thank you for your strong leadership on this from the first conversation,” Biden mentioned.
As a part of its new protection coverage, Japan is occurring a procuring spree and is trying to purchase lots of of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which at present are solely within the arsenals of the United States and Britain.
Japan may even for the primary time develop a “counter-strike” functionality — with the ability to hit launch websites for missiles that threaten it.
In talks this week between the Japanese international and protection ministers and their counterparts, the 2 nations additionally agreed that assaults in house may invoke their mutual protection treaty amid speedy Chinese work on satellites.
“Our security alliance has never been stronger,” mentioned a joint assertion by Biden and Kishida.
“The two leaders reaffirmed that the alliance remains the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific.”
They additionally renewed a name to keep up “peace and stability” within the Taiwan Strait.
China underneath President Xi Jinping has been more and more forceful on Taiwan and staged main navy workouts in August after a defiant go to to the self-governing democracy by Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Japan can be planning to enter joint workouts with the United States and Australia and has coordinated diplomacy as a part of the four-way “Quad” that additionally contains India.
