US, Japan agree to deploy new radar system and drones
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The United States and Japan agreed yesterday to modernize their defense alliance for the first time in 16 years to address growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, global terrorism, cyber intrusions and other 21st century threats.
The move to modernize the US-Japanese defense alliance follows President Barack Obama’s decision to strategically rebalance US forces to the Asia-Pacific region following a dozen years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Our goal is a more balanced and effective alliance,” US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told a news conference after the first “2+2” meeting to be held in Tokyo.
He was joined by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera.
The two countries pledged in a 10-page statement to rewrite their guidelines for security cooperation, begin rotational deployments of US Global Hawk reconnaissance drones to Japan and work to address challenges in cyberspace.
The ministers agreed to locate a new X-band US missile-defense radar system at the Kyogamisaki air base in Kyoto Prefecture in western Japan and formalized a decision to relocate 5,000 US Marines from Japan’s southernmost island of Okinawa to the US Pacific territory of Guam.
The decision to bolster anti-missile radar coverage in Japan and move Marines to Guam had been announced earlier, but the joint statement fixed the location of the new missile tracking system for the first time and specified Japan’s share of the cost of the move to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Tokyo agreed to contribute up to US$3.1 billion to help move the Marines to Guam from Okinawa, where their presence has often been a source of friction with the local government and population. The move is expected to cost some US$8.6 billion.
US Defense and State Department officials say the location of the new anti-missile radar, which is expected to be installed with a year or so, will help improve tracking coverage of rockets launched toward both Japan and the United States.
The US-Japanese agreement also calls for additional efforts to realign US forces in Japan and hand back land to local communities to ensure the political sustainability of the US defense presence in the country.
The two countries also agreed to rewrite the guidelines for US-Japanese Defense Cooperation for the first time since 1997.
The guidelines will be updated to bolster the allies’ ability to respond to an armed attack on Japan, expand cooperation on areas such as counter-terrorism and promoting deeper security cooperation between the two partners, according to the joint agreement.
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