New US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his Japanese counterpart, Gen Nakatani, agreed in a phone call yesterday to continue efforts to strengthen the countries’ alliance, Tokyo said.
Hegseth — a former infantryman and Fox News personality — was sworn in last weekend, having narrowly won US Senate confirmation despite allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and concerns over inexperience.
Key allies Japan and the US are each other’s top foreign investors, and 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in Okinawa, east of Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
However, US President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach could mean less cash from Washington for security in the region, analysts have said.
“The Ministers affirmed their firm intent to continue the initiatives to reinforce the Alliance, including the upgrading of respective command and control framework and expansion of bilateral presence in the southwestern region of Japan,” the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Nakatani said “he looks forward to working with Secretary Hegseth to further strengthen the Alliance capabilities to deter and respond amid the increasingly severe security environment” in the Asia-Pacific region, it added.
Photo: AP
“The Ministers reaffirmed that Article V of the US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security applies to the Senkaku Islands,” it said, referring to the islands called Diaoyutai (釣魚台), which Taiwan and China also claim.
“The Ministers expressed their willingness to meet in person at the earliest possible time,” the statement said.
Nakatani also extended his condolences to relatives of those killed in Wednesday’s air crash in the US between a passenger jet and a military helicopter.
On Saturday last week, Hegseth pledged to “restore the warrior ethos” in the Pentagon, thanking Trump for selecting him and Vice President J.D. Vance for his tie-breaking vote in the Senate that allowed his nomination to pass.
Vance’s vote on Friday evening was only the second time in history a vice president had to intervene to save a Cabinet nominee and came after three Republicans — including former leader Mitch McConnell — cast ballots against Hegseth.
Hegseth has a combative media personality, fierce loyalty and telegenic looks — common hallmarks in Trump’s entourage.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has expressed a wish to meet Trump in Washington, with local media reporting that Friday next week is being eyed as a potential date.
Ishiba last week said that Tokyo must “continue to secure the US commitment to the region, to avoid a power vacuum leading to regional instability.”
“As the balance of power in the region undergoes a historic change, we must deepen Japan-US cooperation further, in a concrete manner,” he told parliament.
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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