Sunday Times 2
US seeks to reassure Japan amid Europe crisis fallout
View(s):YOKOTA AIR BASE, TOKYO, Japan, April 5 (AFP) -US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel today vowed America would stand by its security commitments to Tokyo, after Russia’s intervention in Ukraine raised concerns in a region plagued by its own territorial disputes.
Hagel, on a two-day visit to Japan as part of a tour of Asia, said Russia’s annexation of Crimea had sparked worries among allies in the Pacific and elsewhere.
US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel speaks to both US and Japanese troops on April 5, 2014 at Yokota Air Force Base in Fussa, Japan. Hagel is on an Asian trip, the fourth time since he took office, to Japan, China and Mongolia (AFP)
Japan is locked in a bitter dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea, and some analysts have warned that Russia’s move in Ukraine could embolden Beijing or other powers to take unilateral action to settle territorial claims.
“It’s a pretty predictable … reaction, not just of nations in this area, in this region, but all over the world. It has to concern nations,” Hagel told reporters before landing at Yokota Air Base in Japan.
Although his trip was planned long before Russia’s incursion, Hagel said “another reason I’m here is to reassure our allies of our commitments to their security”.
He said US defence ties with Tokyo had strengthened in recent years with the deployment of advanced surveillance aircraft to the country and plans to station a second early-warning radar there later this year.
“I don’t think there’s any indication or any evidence that we’re doing anything but strengthening our commitment to the security of Japan,” he said.
Soaring tensions in the East China Sea have prompted the United States to explicitly state its mutual defence treaty with Tokyo applies to the islets, which are currently administered by Japan.
Washington has warned China against trying to resolve the disagreement through force.
The crisis over Ukraine came up at a gathering of ASEAN defence ministers hosted by Hagel earlier this week in Hawaii, a defence official said.
But the topic was raised only “tangentially” and “there wasn’t a lot of hand wringing over Ukraine and what will happen in their part of the world,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.