US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday voiced concern over China’s incursions into Japanese territorial waters, recommitting to the ally’s defense.
In a telephone call, Blinken and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi “expressed concern over increased Chinese assertiveness around the Senkaku Islands [Diaoyutai Islands, 釣魚台] following China’s enactment of a new coast guard law,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said.
“Secretary Blinken reaffirmed that the Senkakus fall within the scope of Article V of the US-Japan Security Treaty,” he said, referring to the section that commits the two nations to defend each other if either is attacked.
Photo: Reuters
Tokyo has voiced alarm over increased Chinese incursions after Beijing enacted legislation allowing its coast guard to use weapons against foreign ships seen as illegally entering its waters.
Japan administers the rocky islets in the East China Sea that are also claimed by Taiwan and China, which calls them the Diaoyu Islands (釣魚島).
Blinken’s call comes as US President Joe Biden promises to maintain the hard line of his predecessor, former US president Donald Trump, on a rising China, while also paying closer attention to allies.
Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton first said that the Senkakus fell under Article V, although Trump went a step further by warning against attempts to contest Japan’s control over them.
The State Department said that Blinken and Motegi also discussed last week’s military coup in Myanmar, where Biden is rolling out punishment for the generals if they do not return power to elected leaders.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS