Posted on 01/14/2023 4:19:17 AM PST by fluorescence
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held wide-ranging talks at the White House on Friday as Japan looks to build security cooperation with allies in a time of provocative Chinese and North Korean military action.
[snip]
The leaders discussed Japan's push to step up defense spending and coordination that comes as concerns grow that China could take military action to seize Taiwan and that North Korea's spike in missile testing could augur the isolated nation's achieving its nuclear ambitions.
Biden and Kishida also discussed intrusions by China's military vessels into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The uninhabited islets are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.
Kishida's sit-down with Biden is the final face-to-face in a week of talks with fellow Group of Seven leaders that focused largely on his efforts to increase Japan's defense spending and urge leaders to improve cooperation.
With Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he cemented Japan's first defense agreement with a European nation, one that allows for the two countries to hold joint military exercises.
Kishida also discussed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron his hopes to improve security cooperation between Japan and their respective nations. Germany was the lone G-7 country not on Kishida's itinerary.
Japan last month announced plans to buy U.S.-made Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea under a more offensive security strategy, while Japan, Britain and Italy unveiled plans to collaborate on a next-generation jet fighter project.
(Excerpt) Read more at mainichi.jp ...
Japan is a powerful country
don’t underestimate them
Japan is more or less a US vassal and does what it is told militarily at least . 23 military bases in Japan ! Yet China is the threat ???
Neocons want to burn down Japan the way they do with Ukraine right now.
I’m afraid you are right . I live in Japan , in case you were unaware .
Ukraine thing is largely to disrupt the Euro-Russian trade and suffocate Europe economically.
Japan is another perceived competitor.
Our “ Empire “ is dying and sees Russia and China as the threats to its hegemony .
It cannot bear the thought of having to share power so instead of working together they must convince us that they are our enemies that we must crush
They are not attacking us, we’re attacking them
That is a sort of very correct but rare view.
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