Tokyo, Washington end first round of official talks on support to US military

Japan and the United States have concluded the first round of the official talks over the funding of American military bases in the country, said Tokyo Foreign Ministry in a statement on November 11. US President Donald Trump’s administration has been reportedly pressing Japan and South Korea to increase their spending on the sustenance of US troops on their territories while the latter two nations were mostly unenthusiastic. 

"On November 9 and 10 in Washington D.C., the Government of Japan and the Government of the United States of America held formal negotiations on Host Nation Support. The new Host Nation Support agreement will replace the existing agreement which expires on March 31, 2021," a statement on the Foreign Ministry's website read.

The delegations were headed by  Deputy Director-General at Japan's North American Affairs Bureau, Yutaka Arima and  Senior Advisor at the US State Department's Political-Military Bureau, Donna Welton along with other senior officials from both the nations. The conclusion of US-Japan formal negotiations on Host nation support came a day after Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said that Tokyo would seek a stopgap one-year funding deal instead of the usual agreement of five years.

The one-year agreement now leaves the plan flexible for the upcoming administration in the uS under President-elect Joe Biden who recently won the US Election 2020 and will officially replace Trump by January 20, 2021. Tokyo hopes that Biden would undo the demands by the Trump administration for increased funding. The current agreement in place between both the nations will run out at the end of the fiscal year, that is, in March 2021.

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Japan PM's adviser says 'US will need Tokyo more' 

Meanwhile, a prominent foreign policy adviser to Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has told the latter that the US will need Tokyo more amid ongoing tensions with China that won't change even under the new leadership. In a major turn of global politics that can potentially change the stance of the United States is the failure of Donald Trump to be reelected. As per Bloomberg report, former diplomat Kunihiko Miyake has said that US’ relations with Japan and East Asian policies are expected to become “relatively more important” especially when Washington is at odds with China. 

Even though 46th US president-elect Joe Biden who is all set to take Trump’s place at the White House, Japan PM’s adviser has predicted that US-China would remain unchanged even under the new American leadership. According to Miyake, both Democrats and Republicans in the US are on the same side when it comes to strategic disagreements with China. 

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