Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi called Tokyo’s alliance with Washington “unshakable” after talks with U.S. defense chief Pete Hegseth on Thursday, but declined to offer specifics about any united response to China’s military moves in the Indo-Pacific.
Koizumi met with Hegseth for 50 minutes at the Pentagon, near Washington, the Defense Ministry said, with the two discussing a number of issues, including defense spending, boosting the allies’ military presence in Japan’s southwestern islands near Taiwan, and defense industrial cooperation.
“We confirmed that the Japan-U.S. alliance remains absolutely unshakable,” Koizumi said. “This visit to the United States strongly reaffirmed the importance the United States places on the Indo-Pacific region, including on our country.”