Japan’s foreign minister tells Washington audience world at ‘historical crossroads’ and that Russian invasion of Ukraine must not succeed
While repeatedly highlighting threats posed by China, Hayashi largely avoided mentioning it by name, but said it was essential to maintain a “high-level, candid dialogue” with Beijing and that cooperation was also important with it when necessary, such as on climate change and North Korea.and said such moves should never be allowed elsewhere. He said it was essential that it go down as “clear failure”, or other countries would attempt to change the status quo by force.
Hayashi said there was an urgent need to strengthen the regional deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US alliance and that the Tokyo government planned to substantially increase defence budgets and fundamentally strengthen defence capabilities within five years. Hayashi, who was in Washington to launch a new “two-plus-two” economic dialogue with the US, said it was necessary to keep all options – including “counterstrike capabilities” – on the table and to strengthen high-tech defence capabilities.
He also said it was crucial that the credibility of the US extended deterrence be strengthened – a reference to the US nuclear weapons umbrella that protects allies including Japan – while calling on China, which he said was “rapidly building up its nuclear force in an opaque manner”, to take part in efforts to reduce nuclear risk.