US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi reaffirmed their commitment to deepen bilateral ties in a meeting on Saturday, as Tokyo faces escalating tensions with China.
The two officials agreed on the need to modernize economic security relations, and discussed Beijing’s latest trade and export measures against Japan, according a US Department of State readout released after their talks in Munich, Germany.
China has stepped up diplomatic and economic pressure on Japan after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that Tokyo might come to the aid of Taiwan in the event of a conflict with China.
Photo: Pool via REUTERS
Beijing last month imposed some controls on exports to Japan.
All dual-use items are banned from being shipped to Japan for military use or “for any other end-user purposes that could enhance Japan’s military capabilities,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said, without elaborating.
Tokyo has criticized the restrictions as unacceptable, further straining an already tense relationship between the two countries.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) invoked Japan’s World War II history of aggression in comments at the Munich Security Conference and warned Takaichi against a return to militarism.
He said her support for Taiwan was “a very dangerous development” for Asia.
The remarks by China’s top diplomat are a rebuke to Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, who used his appearance at the conference on Friday to downplay tensions with Beijing.
“Even though we have differences, we have disagreements, Japan’s stance is very clear — we are always open to dialogue,” Koizumi said. “We are not going to shut down any channels, regardless of our differences.”
He said Takaichi’s overwhelming election victory this month, in which she won a rare supermajority, “gave me the courage to push our security policy.”
Japan would still need to be careful explaining to the public why Tokyo needs to strengthen its security policy, “by explaining what we are seeing around us,” Koizumi said.
Takaichi is due to visit Washington next month to meet with US President Donald Trump, ahead of US leader’s planned trip to China the following month.
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