U.S. President Joe Biden (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (right) will agree next month to strengthen military cooperation, including talks on the biggest potential change in Washington’s East Asia command structure in decades, two sources said.
Kiyoshi Ohta | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will agree next month to step up military cooperation, including talks on the biggest potential change in Washington’s East Asia command structure in decades, two sources said.
Sources say Washington will consider appointing a four-star commander to oversee forces in Japan, a counterpart to the proposed commander of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF), which oversees all military operations in the country. plan.
According to the Financial Times, Biden and Kishida will announce their plans when they meet in Washington on April 10.
“We are discussing how the planned joint command can strengthen cooperation with the United States and South Korea,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitsune Hayashi said when asked about the reports at a regular media briefing on Monday.
He added that the agenda for the Biden-Kishida summit has not yet been determined.
Kishida hopes to establish a joint command headquarters by the end of March 2025. Tokyo said it had “serious concern“China’s growing military power and the threat it poses to Taiwan, which is just over 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Japanese territory.
Unlike neighboring South Korea, the U.S. and South Korean armies can operate under the unified command of four-star generals, while the U.S. military, land, and air forces in Japan are served by three-star commanders and have no authority over the Japanese army.
The four-star commander — the highest peacetime rank in the U.S. military service — will match the rank of his Japanese counterpart at the new headquarters. Experts say that U.S. officers of this level may lay the foundation for future unified command between Japan and the United States.
However, some U.S. officials want any new U.S. commander there to be responsible only for joint exercises, training and sharing information with the new SDF headquarters, one of the sources said. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so. Talk to the media.
The White House, National Security Council and State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Japanese National Security Adviser Takeo Akiba, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“The two officials highlighted areas where the alliance needs further advancement in supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Pentagon said in a statement after the meeting.
Japan is critical to U.S. military power in Asia, with 54,000 U.S. troops, hundreds of aircraft and Washington’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier strike group. Bases on Japanese islands allow the United States to project military power throughout the region and limit China’s influence.
Cooperation between the two allies has grown closer as Japan abandons the postwar pacifism that shaped its defense planning for decades.
By the end of 2022, Japan pledges to double defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product, which includes funding for cruise missiles that can strike ships or land-based targets up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away.
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