Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday warned that the invasion of Ukraine could be replicated in East Asia if leading powers do not respond as one, saying that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait must be maintained.
Kishida, speaking in London through a translator after a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said now was the time for G7 nations to solidify their unity.
“Collaboration among countries sharing universal values becomes ever more vital,” he said. “We must collaborate with our allies and like-minded countries, and never tolerate a unilateral attempt to change the status quo by the use of force in the Indo-Pacific [region], especially in East Asia.”
Photo: AFP
“Ukraine may be East Asia tomorrow,” he added.
“Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is critical not only for Japan’s security, but also for the stability of international society,” Kishida said. “Japan maintains its position to expect a peaceful resolution through dialogue to issues surrounding Taiwan, and the situation will be watched carefully from that perspective.”
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) yesterday thanked Kishida for his comments, saying they “not only reflect the aspirations of democratic countries, but also win the recognition and approval of the international community.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said that Japan was exaggerating a perceived threat from Beijing as an excuse to boost its military might.
“If Japan really wants peace and stability in East Asia, it should immediately stop provoking confrontation between big powers and do more to help increase the trust between regional countries, and promote regional peace and stability,” Zhao told a regular news briefing in Beijing.
During the London meeting, Johnson announced that the militaries of the UK and Japan would “work more closely together’” under a defense deal.
Kishida also announced new sanctions, including an asset freeze on 140 Russians and the expansion of an export ban to include Russian military firms.
Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party has also proposed a substantial increase in defense spending — possibly to an amount on par with 2 percent of GDP, up from 1 percent — and the development of the capacity to attack missile-launching sites in an enemy’s territory.
In Washington, Japanese Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Wednesday vowed to defend the rules-based international order in a meeting at the Pentagon.
The US and Japan would enhance cooperation to oppose China’s expansionism in the East and South China seas to prevent any change by force to the “status quo” in the region, they said.
The countries are to counter threats emanating from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear tests, they added.
Tokyo is to revise its National Security Strategy to allow the possession of counterstrike capabilities against long-range missiles before the end of the year, Kishi said.
Austin was quoted by the Pentagon as saying that the US reaffirms “unwavering commitment to the defense of Japan to include our extended deterrence commitments using our full range of conventional and nuclear capabilities.”
Additional reporting by Lin Tsuei-yi and Jonathan Chin, with CNA, AP and the Guardian
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS