Trump criticizes Japan defense pact again

By Lu Wenao Source:Global Times Published: 2019/6/27 21:33:41

Wants Tokyo to pay more for US military presence: expert


US President Donald Trump holds an umbrella as he arrives at the Osaka International Airport for the G-20 Summit on Thursday in Osaka, Japan. Photo: VCG

US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the US-Japan security alliance, saying "if we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us at all," which analysts believe is Trump's way of trying to squeeze Japan to pay more for the cost of US military presence in Japan.

Responding to a question at a Fox television interview on Wednesday on which bilateral deals he would like to see with various countries, including Japan, Trump made this comment, ahead of talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Osaka this week.

"Almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage of the United States ... Like even Japan on the treaty; we have a treaty with Japan. If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III," Trump said.

"We will go in and we will protect them and we will fight with our lives and with our treasures. We will fight at all costs, right? But if we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television, the attack."

"Trump is trying to squeeze Japan to pay more for the cost of the US military presence in Japan, said Hu Lingyuan, chief of the Japanese Research Center of Shanghai-based Fudan University.

"Trump is only threatening to revise the treaty to give the US an advantage in negotiations in other areas," Hu told the Global Times on Thursday. 

"Through this, Trump will pressure Japan to pay more for the US military presence in the country."

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the two governments had not discussed revising the treaty and dismissed the notion that the pact was unfair, according to reports.

"The obligations of the United States and Japan ... are balanced between both countries," he told a news conference.

The US side is expected to step up its demand for Japan to pay more in talks that will likely start next year, Japanese media Asahi Shimbun reported.

Under the US-Japan security treaty after World War II, the US committed to defending Japan, while Japan provides military bases to the US, such as the biggest concentration of US Marines outside the US on Okinawa, and the forward deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group at the Yokosuka naval base near Tokyo.

But residents in Okinawa have raised their concern about the US military presence in the region after a series of military helicopter accidents. 

A deterioration of US-Japan ties from an end to the security pact could force Washington to withdraw a major portion of its military forces from Asia, Reuters reported Thursday, saying it would also force Japan to seek new alliances in the region and bolster its own defenses.

"Ultimately, Japan wants to be an independent military powerhouse, and to get rid of US limits on it," Hu said. "Thanks to the pact, Japan did not spend big on its military in the past. But Trump wants Japan to spend more."

Hu also noted that what concerns Asia most should not be whether the US is quitting the alliance but a growing independent Japanese military power in the region.



Posted in: ASIA-PACIFIC

blog comments powered by Disqus