Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba yesterday said that he would have “frank discussions” with US president-elect Donald Trump, saying that cooperation between them was vital to ensuring a “free and open Pacific.”
“I will have frank discussions with incoming president Trump and lead the alliance to new heights,” Ishiba said in parliament in a key policy address. “Naturally, the US has its own national interest and Japan has its own national interest. That is why I think exchanging opinions frankly and enhancing the national interests of both countries in a synergetic way will help realize a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Beijing has displayed increasingly assertive behavior in territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific region, including around Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
Tokyo is also alarmed by nuclear-armed North Korea’s expansion of its missile activities. Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his first term.
Ishiba, a self-confessed defense “geek,” has called for the creation of an Asian NATO with its principle of an attack on one being an attack on all.
“The Japan-US security alliance is the foundation of Japan’s diplomacy and security,” Ishiba said. “At the same time, however, the United States receives great strategic benefits from the existence of facilities and areas [controlled by] US forces in Japan.”
In Trump’s first term, then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe appeared to have warm personal relations with the US president, playing golf together several times.
Ishiba and the US president-elect had what the Japanese prime minister called a “very friendly” telephone conversation after Trump’s election win earlier this month.
Key allies Japan and the US are each other’s top foreign investors, and 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in Okinawa, east of Taiwan.
Japan has been shedding its strict pacifist stance, moving to obtain “counterstrike” capabilities.
US President Joe Biden and Ishiba’s predecessor, former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, announced a “new era” in defense in April.
Japan is already in the process of doubling its military spending to the NATO standard of 2 percent of GDP, but Trump’s “America First” approach could mean that in his second term he could provide less cash and press Japan to do more.
Trump also caused panic among some of the biggest US trading partners on Monday when he said he would impose tariffs of 25 percent on Mexican and Canadian imports, and 10 percent on goods from China.
Many Japanese exporters, including automakers Toyota and Honda, have plants in Mexico and in Canada. Both firms’ shares fell sharply this week.
Japanese government officials have declined to comment on Trump’s tariff threats, and Ishiba did not address the issue directly yesterday, but Masakazu Tokura, chairman of Japan’s most influential business organization, Keidanren, on Tuesday said that the impact on Japanese firms could be “enormous.”
Trump could also press Japan to join expanded US efforts to limit exports to China, such as semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence chips, which could hurt Japanese firms.
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
RSS