Top foreign and defence officials from the U.S. and Japan have agreed China’s growing presence in the Indo-Pacific region poses the “greatest strategic challenge”.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada along with their U.S. counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, agreed to optimise the alliance between the two nations in Washington.
The four people vowed to reinforce deterrence as well as expand the scope of their security treaty even into space.
“The ministers concurred that China’s foreign policy seeks to reshape the international order to its benefit and to employ China’s growing political, economic, military and technological power to that end,” a joint statement said.
“This behaviour is of serious concern to the alliance and the entire international community.”
The two-plus-two talks came a day ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s first visit to the U.S. since taking office in October 2021.
