Japan defense minister's US tour to counter 'increasingly assertive China': Report

According to experts, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi's visit to the US in May for talks with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on enhancing bilateral ties is in response to the 'increasingly assertive China' in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to reports, Kishi and Austin are anticipated to voice their intolerance of China's stepped-up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan. The report adds that both sides are likely to express their concerns about Beijing's unilateral attempts to change the status quo in East Asia by force, as per Global Times.

Japan has spared no efforts in hyping up China's "threat" to the island of Taiwan and the meeting between the two defense ministers could involve the discussion of specific support measures such as economic and military cooperation.

The meeting comes at a critical juncture as it also gives Japan the opportunity to pre-empt any threats to its surrounding regions, the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Aiming to deepen defense cooperation, the US and Japan held a virtual 2+2 meeting in January, with the signature of a new five-year agreement on sharing the cost of US military presence in Japan.

The meeting involved foreign and defense ministers from both countries and, as usual, targeted China which was described as undermining the rules-based international order and posing "present political, economic, military, and technological challenges to the region and the world," reported the Global Times.

( With inputs from ANI )

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