Kyodo News
Japanese and US foreign ministers on Friday agreed to "pay close attention" to China after President Xi Jinping last month began an unusual third term as leader of the ruling Communist Party under new leadership, according to a Japanese official.
Also, meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in Germany, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed close bilateral cooperation on North Korea's denuclearization in amid growing concern over a spate of missile tests. for Pyongyang.
The launches, which have been recorded with unprecedented frequency this year, are "completely unacceptable," Hayashi said at the beginning of the meeting in Münster, west Germany, referring to the test launch of an ICBM on Thursday and a missile that landed near South Korean territorial waters day before. Blinken said North Korea's series of provocative actions only strengthened the "absolute" U.S.
Commitment to the security of Japan and South Korea and deepening the three countries' determination to "work even more closely together" to address repeated violations of US Security Council resolutions by Pyongyang. North Korea is also believed to have made preparations for its seventh nuclear test, which would be its first since September 2017.
Such behavior has heightened security concerns in the Indo-Pacific, where China has become increasingly assertive, even toward Taiwan. According to the Japanese government official, during their 30-minute conversation, Hayashi and Blinken reiterated the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan is an autonomous democratic island that Beijing regards as a breakaway province to be reunited with the mainland, if necessary by force. Concerns are growing that Xi could take a tougher stance on the island while accelerating its build-up. Hayashi commended President Joe Biden's US administration for mentioning in its recently released National Security Strategy, which the U.S
The defense commitment under their bilateral security agreement includes the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, just 170 kilometers from Taiwan. China has conducted repeated incursions into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands, controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.
Hayashi and Blinken also reiterated the need to strengthen the bilateral alliance's deterrence and response capabilities amid the increasingly challenging security environment and work together to assist Ukraine in countering Russian aggression, according to Japan's Defense Ministry.
The two had a brief conversation Thursday about North Korea's missile tests, which took place earlier in the day and on Wednesday. North Korea's recent missile launches appear to be in retaliation for the first large-scale joint US-South Korean air exercise in five years, which began in late October.
A spokesman for North Korea's foreign ministry said the country's military activities that followed the air drill were "a due response and warning of action to enemy provocations," according to a statement by a Korean official released by the Central News Agency on Friday .
North Korea "makes it clear once again that it will never tolerate any attempt by hostile forces to violate its sovereignty and security interests, but will respond with the toughest counter-attack to the end," the
statement said.
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