BEIJING (Realist English). The strengthening of military cooperation between the United States and Japan is aimed at containing Russia and China. This opinion was expressed in an interview with the Chinese newspaper Global Times by Da Zhigan, director and research fellow at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
Japanese media reported on Sunday that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel inspected the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday. A strike group led by the vessel held joint drills with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force in waters near the country earlier this month.
The Japanese Foreign Minister said that Tokyo will continue close cooperation with the United States and will comprehensively strengthen its defense capability.
“There is no doubt that the military cooperation is targeted at containing China and Russia, said Da Zhigang, director and research fellow at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. Da told the Global Times on Sunday that since the Ukraine crisis, the US and Japan are trying to bind the so-called threat from China and Russia together, as they believe this could make their joint military operation more persuasive and reasonable.” points out Chinese expert Da Zhigang .
Liu Jiangyong, vice dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, emphasizes that “Japan is moving toward a wrong direction. The harder it works, the more dangerous it will be.”
By tying itself to the US’chariot, Japan is apparently trying to change the previous peaceful image it left to the world in the past 70 years after WWII, Liu said. He believes that Tokyo is also acting against Beijing breaking many of its taboos by offering Ukraine military equipment and imposing sanctions on Russia, boosting its national military budget and following the US to realize a “free and open Indo-Pacific” which is actually a geostrategic network against China.
Military personnel of the ground units of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces will take part in joint exercises with the US Marines on the island of Hokkaido, the Nikkei newspaper reports.
The military maneuvers will take place over two weeks from September to October. More than 4 thousand military personnel will be involved. The publication notes that the decision to hold the exercises was made against the backdrop of Russia’s military special operation in the Ukraine and the strengthening of China’s military potential.
