In countering China, U.S. sees a growing role for Japan

The United States’ alliance with Japan is evolving to counter an increasingly “untethered” China, Washington’s envoy to Tokyo told NBC News in an exclusive interview this week.

OKINAWA, Japan — The United States’ alliance with Japan is evolving to counter an increasingly “untethered” China, Washington’s envoy to Tokyo told NBC News in an exclusive interview this week.

“They have been more aggressive, as we have, from purely a strategic standpoint of putting our roots down even deeper in the area at the behest of regional allies,” the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, said Thursday in Tokyo, referring to Beijing.

The U.S.-Japan relationship “is evolving from one that was always focused on alliance protection” to one focused on “alliance projection,” Emanuel said. That means asserting U.S. and Japanese influence around the Asia-Pacific region, including through broader partnerships such as Washington’s AUKUS security alliance with Australia and Britain and the Quad, a security grouping made up of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan.

NBC News spoke to Emanuel as U.S. and Japanese forces participated in joint drills known as “Iron Fist,” which have taken place annually since 2006 and moved to Japan from California last year. They underscore the urgency with which Washington is shoring up security partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region, where China, Russia and North Korea pose growing threats.

The Biden administration is counting on Japan, a U.S. ally since the end of World War II, to sharpen its regional defense posture, particularly as China builds its military power.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/countering-china-us-sees-growing-role-japan-rcna143334

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