The highest-ranking US military officer yesterday encouraged Japan’s commitment to doubling its defense spending over the next five years, calling Tokyo’s push for a stronger military crucial to confront rising threats from North Korea and China.
US General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned Japan’s need for improvements in cruise missile defense, early warning missile systems and air capabilities, all of which would help the US as it looks to counter North Korea’s push for a nuclear missile program capable of targeting the US mainland and China’s increasing aggression against Taiwan.
China has “invested enormously in their military, and aspire to be the regional power in the next 10 to 15 years,” Milley said.
Photo: AP
That “could be very unstable; it could be very dangerous, and I think having a powerful Japan, a militarily capable Japan that has a close alliance with the United States and other countries, will go a long way to deterring war,” he said.
Milley’s comments to reporters at the US ambassador’s residence in Tokyo provide an explicit US military analysis of the security situation in northeast Asia.
Washington wants its allies, particularly in Tokyo and Seoul, to do more.
Milley also addressed the most recent missile test-launch by North Korea, a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that he said “clearly demonstrates an intent to develop a capability to strike the continental United States.”
While not providing specifics about the North’s missile program, he said: “It has our attention.”
Japan’s budget for the next fiscal year provides a record ￥6.8 trillion (US$49 billion) in defense spending, up 20 percent from a year earlier.
That includes ￥211.3 billion for deployment of US-made long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles that can be launched from warships and can hit targets up to 1,600km away.
The defense budget is the first installment of a five-year, ￥43 trillion military spending plan as part of Japan’s new National Security Strategy, which was announced in December last year.
The new spending target meets NATO standards and would eventually push Japan’s annual defense budget to about ￥10 trillion, the world’s third-biggest after the US and China.
“I have no doubt that the Japanese military could rapidly expand in scale, size, scope and skill very, very fast,” Milley said.
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