Defense One:
U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are pledging to deepen military cooperation in the coming years as America reinforces its pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.
The most fundamental shift in military relations between the two countries rests in the agreement to come to the defense of either nations’ troops should they come under threat from an adversary in the region. While this is widely regarded to protect against the North Korean threat in particular, U.S. officials this week downplayed the renewed alliance’s possible counterbalance to China’s expansive regional maritime ambitions….
Missile Defense and Nuclear
The U.S. plans to deploy two additional Navy ballistic missile destroyers to Japan by 2017, and late last year deployed a second AN/TPY-2, a long-range radar that tracks ballistic missiles. The U.S. has spent the last few years beefing up its missile defenses in Japan to counter North Korean missiles. (That concern is shared by South Korea, which is eyeing aU.S. missile defense system that could shake up the regional security dynamics as well.)
Washington and Tokyo also vowed to closely monitor nuclear states across the globe so that their energy programs do not contribute to the spread of nuclear weapons. The enhanced partnership also promises a joint U.S.-Japan response should nation-states fail to comply with nuclear security standards laid out by the International Atomic Energy Agency…
