WASHINGTON — As their nations grapple with it growing challenges of China, President Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan meet Friday to discuss how to transform Japan into a military power and strengthen the alliance between the two nations as the lynchpin for maintaining theirs security interests in Asia.
Mr. Kishida is making his first trip to Washington since his election in October 2021 and a month after his administration announced plans to bolster its military capabilities and significantly increase military spending in the face of China’s growing power and repeated missile tests by North Korea.
In addition to military issues, Mr. Biden, Mr. Kishida and their associates are expected to discuss the close economic ties between the two nations and the challenges of maintaining secure global supply chains, including in technology trade with China, the second largest economy in the world, and in Tightening sanctions against Russia.
The summit follows a meeting Wednesday between Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and their counterparts Yoshimasa Hayashi and Yasukazu Hamada of Japan.
U.S. and Japanese officials said Wednesday the two nations would expand military cooperation, including enhancing Japan’s missile attack capabilities and making the U.S. naval force in that country more flexible for potential combat.
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The changes come as both countries perceive greater threatening behavior from China and North Korea, as well as Russia. These three countries have decades-long partnerships that they have recently reaffirmed in different settings.
As part of the new US regime of operations in Japan, those serving in Okinawa as part of the 12th Marine Regiment, an artillery unit, will be transformed into a more mobile unit: the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment. The new configuration will allow them to spread more easily to other islands along the coast if necessary, U.S. officials said.
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The Coastal Regiment will have battalion-sized units, totaling around 2,000 soldiers, and will have long-range fire capabilities that can hit ships. Mr Austin said the change would result in a presence that was “more deadly, more agile and more capable”.
The agreement will not increase the number of Marines serving in Okinawa, officials said. But it will allow Marines to deploy more quickly if tensions in the region heat up. Pentagon officials said the reorganization was designed in part to deal with China’s growing military activity and presence, including around the island of Taiwan, a self-governing Chinese Communist Party democracy intends to bring under his rule.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year has made American, Taiwanese, and Japanese officials even more concerned about the possibility of China making an attempt against Taiwan — perhaps not in the coming months or years, but possibly by the end of the decade. Much depends on how Chinese officials perceive the balance of military strength in the region, which includes American forces, U.S. officials say.
Japan is concerned about major maritime activities by the Chinese military in the East China Sea and around the Senkaku Islands, which are disputed areas between the two governments.
The Biden administration has worked closely with the Japanese government on a number of other security issues in Asia, including North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and nuclear program. US officials have sought to strengthen cooperation with Japan and South Korea amid threats from North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, as well as China’s aggressive behavior in the region.
Japan is a key member of the Quad Coalition, which includes the United States, India and Australia. It has also worked with the United States on export control sanctions against Russia following the February invasion of Ukraine.
