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US, Japan and South Korea sign pact to institutionalise defence ties
- The US will unveil a major revamp of its military command structure in Japan, headed by a three-star general
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The United States will unveil a major revamp of its military command structure in Japan and other measures to deepen defence ties with its Asian ally at high-level security talks in Tokyo on Sunday.
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The overhaul comes as Tokyo looks to establish a new joint headquarters to oversee its armed forces by March to coordinate better with Washington on growing regional threats they see emanating from China and North Korea.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin will hold talks with their Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defence Minister Minoru Kihara later on Sunday.
Austin and Kihara also met their counterpart from South Korea, Shin Won-sik, for talks in Tokyo on Sunday where they signed an agreement to “institutionalise” trilateral cooperation via efforts like real-time sharing of North Korean missile warning data and joint military exercises.
“Secretary Austin plans to announce that the United States intends to reconstitute US Forces Japan as a Joint Force Headquarters, reporting to the commander of US INDOPACOM,” the US official told a briefing ahead of the talks.
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The command would be headed by a three-star general, the official said, not the four-star rank that Japan had requested.
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