Pentagon chief and Japanese defense minister agree to strengthen military ties
Photo: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth (Getty Images)
The new US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani had their first phone conversation on Thursday, January 30. The two sides agreed to expand their countries' joint military presence around the Japanese islands in the East China Sea, Bloomberg reports.
According to the report of the conversation, Hegseth also confirmed to Nakatani that the defense treaty between the United States and Japan covers a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are under Japanese control but claimed by China.
In particular, Bloomberg notes that armed Chinese coast guard vessels regularly sail near the uninhabited islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. The United States, for its part, has not taken a position on the sovereignty of the islands, but successive US administrations have agreed that in the event of an attack on the islands, the mutual defense treaty with Japan would be invoked.
The agency also writes that during the phone call, the ministers agreed to continue efforts to strengthen the alliance, including improving the command and control structure of the United States and Japan.
In particular, last year, the United States announced plans to establish a new joint military headquarters in Japan, which will operate alongside a new joint operations command for the Japanese military.
“The two ministers agreed that Japan and the US will work together to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the Japanese Defense Ministry summarized in a statement.
Russia's preparations for attacks on Japan
In late December 2024, the Financial Times published data obtained from 29 secret military files of Russia. The documents, dated 2013-2014, describe plans for Russian strikes on the military and civilian infrastructure of Japan and South Korea in the event of war.
Despite the dates of the documents, the data is still considered relevant to current Russian strategies.
Read more in RBC-Ukraine's reports.
