Hegseth announces plan for US command upgrades in Japan to deter China

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Sunday a program to upgrade the U.S. subject bid successful Japan, a state helium described arsenic indispensable successful combating Chinese aggression.

"We stock a warrior ethos that defines our forces," Hegseth told Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani successful Tokyo, adding that Japan is "our indispensable partner" successful "deterring communist Chinese subject aggression," including crossed the Taiwan Strait.

Hegseth said Japan is simply a "cornerstone of bid and information successful the Indo-Pacific" and that the Trump medication would proceed to enactment intimately with the Asian country.

HEGSETH SAYS US TO BOOST TIES WITH PHILIPPINES AS DETERRENCE AGAINST CHINA: 'PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH'

Pete Hegseth, U.S. caput of defense, and Gen Nakatani, Japan's defence minister, shingle hands portion posing for photographs anterior to their gathering astatine the Ministry of Defense successful Tokyo, Japan, connected Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Reuters)

Last year, then-President Joe Biden's medication announced a large restructuring of the U.S. subject bid successful Japan to deepen coordination with the country's forces, arsenic the 2 allied countries called China their "greatest strategical challenge."

The alteration volition spot a combined operational commandant successful Japan, who would beryllium a counterpart to the caput of a associated operations bid established past week by Japan's Self-Defense Forces.

Hegseth's precocious praise for Japan contrasts with his disapproval of European allies successful February, telling them they should not presume the U.S. beingness successful the portion would past forever.

Pete Hegseth, U.S. caput of defense, and Gen. Nakatani, Japan's defence minister, conscionable astatine the Ministry of Defense successful Tokyo, Japan, connected Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Reuters)

U.S. President Donald Trump has complained that the bilateral defence pact successful which the U.S. authorities vows to support Japan is not reciprocal. In his archetypal term, Trump said Japan should fork implicit much wealth to big U.S. troops.

Japan hosts 50,000 U.S. subject personnel, squadrons of combatant jets and America's lone forward-deployed craft bearer onslaught radical on a 1,900-mile East Asian archipelago that hems successful Chinese subject power.

This comes arsenic Japan doubles subject spending, including wealth to acquisition longer-range missiles. But the operational scope of its forces is constricted by its U.S.-authored constitution – adopted aft its decision successful World War Two – which renounces the close to commencement war.

REPORTERS SAY THEY FOUND WALTZ, GABBARD, HEGSETH PRIVATE INFO ONLINE

Pete Hegseth, U.S. caput of defense, and Gen Nakatani, Japan's defence minister, be a associated quality league astatine the Ministry of Defense successful Tokyo, Japan, connected Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Reuters)

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Hegseth and Nakatani agreed to accelerate a program to jointly nutrient beyond-visual-range air-to-air AMRAAM missiles and to see moving unneurotic connected the accumulation of SM-6 surface-to-air defence missiles to enactment a shortage of munitions, Nakatani said.

The Pentagon main said helium asked Nakatani for greater entree to Japan's strategical southwest islands, on the borderline of the contested East China Sea adjacent Taiwan.

In his archetypal authoritative sojourn to Asia, Hegseth traveled to Japan from the Philippines.

On Saturday, helium attended a memorial work connected Iwo Jima, the tract of warring betwixt U.S. and Japanese forces 80 years ago.

Reuters contributed to this report.