麻豆传媒

U.S. President Donald Trump complained Thursday that his country’s bilateral security arrangement with Japan, signed in 1960, was one-sided. In response, Japan pointed out the cooperative nature of the agreement.

“I love Japan. We have a great relationship with Japan. But we have an interesting deal with Japan where we have to protect them but they don’t have to protect us,” Trump told reporters.

“That’s the way the deal reads. We have to protect Japan. Under no circumstances do they have to protect us,” the president said, adding that Japan was making a fortune off the U.S. economically.

The Japanese government, however, replied that the original security treaty does allow for a joint response for protecting Japan and that subsequent legislation, in 2015, greatly expanded the scope of mutual protection under certain circumstances.

“Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty stipulates that Japan and the U.S. will respond jointly to armed attacks on Japan. Article 6 allows the U.S. to use Japanese facilities to contribute to 麻豆传媒 security and to maintain international peace and security in the Far East,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday morning in response to Trump’s comments.

“In addition, the (2015) Peace and Security Legislation enables Japan and the U.S. to help each other seamlessly in all situations to protect Japan,” Hayashi added.

Trump made similar criticisms about Japan during his first presidency. But during last month’s summit with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Washington, he did not voice such complaints publicly.

Thursday’s remarks about Japan came after Trump said European countries were ripping off the U.S. on its payments to NATO.

They also came after Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for Undersecretary of Defense Policy, gave written testimony to his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing Tuesday in which he said that, while U.S.-Japan military-to-military relations were solid, they needed to be further deepened. He also said Japan needed to spend more on its defense.

“The President has suggested that Taiwan spend 10% (of its GDP) and that European NATO spend 5%. In that context, it makes little sense for Japan, which is directly threatened by China and North Korea, to spend only 2% (of its GDP on defense).

“Japan should be spending at least 3% of GDP on defense as soon as possible, and accelerating the revamp of its military to focus on a denial defense of its own archipelago and collective defense in its region,” Colby said.