Japanese premier seeks ‘further strengthening’ of alliance with US

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday sought “further strengthening” of alliance with the US through “concrete cooperation.”

Kishida’s comments came a day after Tokyo and Washington agreed to reconstitute US forces in Japan for “better” coordination of their bilateral alliance and to pursue the expansion of co-production of air defense missiles.

The US has some 50,000 soldiers deployed in Japan under a bilateral defense pact.

The Japanese prime minister hosted visiting top US diplomat Antony Blinken and US defense chief Llyod Austin in Tokyo, according to a readout by Foreign Ministry.

Kishida told the duo he would “like to further strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Alliance through discussions and concrete cooperation at various levels and frameworks.”

Japan and the US Sunday held "two-plus-two" security talks in Tokyo which hosted by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, where Blinken and Austin represented Washington.

During the meeting with Kishida, the two sides discussed the “importance of close coordination towards gaining the understanding of local communities, in order to ensure the stable stationing of US forces in Japan.”

It comes amid rising cases of sexual abuse by the American soldiers in Japan.

Separately on Sunday, the defense chiefs from Japan, the US and South Korea agreed to a landmark security cooperation framework to help "institutionalize" trilateral defense ties.