The Sankei Shimbun newspaper quoted an informed source on February 4 as saying Japanese Government willing to consider the implementation of medium range missile of the United States on the territory of this Northeast Asian country if Washington initiates formal negotiations on this issue.
According to the source, in the past 3-4 years, this issue has only been raised by the US on the sidelines of bilateral meetings, but has not been officially discussed by the leaders of the two countries.
[Nhật, Mỹ tập trận không quân sau vụ phóng ICBM của Triều Tiên]
Washington has implied that Japan might deploy Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) and Tomahawk cruise missile, currently under development, on the territory of this Northeast Asian country. However, there is currently no specific proposal on where to deploy.
In addition, there is a possibility that these missiles will be deployed on US military ships stationed in the Indo-Pacific region on a rotation basis.
The source stressed that the deployment of missiles in Japan is in line with Washington’s strategic maritime security plan.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida discussed with US President Joe Biden regarding further strengthening the military alliance between the two countries during his visit to Washington in mid-January.
At the meeting, Mr. Kishida said that Japan plans to buy hundreds of Tomahawk missiles to enhance its defense capabilities.
Before the meeting, media reported that Tokyo planned to buy up to 500 missiles of this type from the US by 2027.
Japan has long maintained a self-defensive security policy, and limits its annual defense budget to regarding 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or more than 5 trillion yen.
To bolster the country’s defenses, however, Prime Minister Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is aiming to nearly double defense spending to the equivalent of at least 2 percent of GDP, on par. equal to the level of defense spending of member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Phan An (VNA/Vietnam+)
