Kyodo News
April 23, 2022

Japan’s Hayashi, U.S. envoy Emanuel show off alliance on carrier

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Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Saturday demonstrated the two nations’ solid alliance, as they embarked together on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier after its military drill in waters near Japan earlier this month.

At a press conference held in the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, Hayashi said that the vessel’s activities in the region “embody a resolution of the United States to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific” region….

Hayashi and Emanuel were observing the U.S. carrier, whose strike group conducted a 10-day joint naval exercise through April 17 involving vessels and fighter jets of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in the Sea of Japan [East Sea] and the East China Sea.

The drill came as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuels fears China could be emboldened to intensify its military activities in the Indo-Pacific region…

“Aggressors in the region are acting in bad faith and threatening peace and stability, as well as the values we, the United States and Japan, hold,” Emanuel told the news conference….

During the ship observation, Hayashi also held talks with Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, and exchanged views with the carrier’s crew, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

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Nikkei Asia/Reuters
April 23, 2022

Japan’s foreign minister promises stronger military to help U.S.

Japan’s foreign minister promised his country would bolster its military to help the United States maintain regional security during a visit on Saturday to a U.S. aircraft carrier patrolling Asian waters.

“Today I was able to experience first hand the frontline of national security,” Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in the hangar deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln sailing in waters south of Tokyo. Japan will “significantly strengthen” its defence capabilities and work closely with the United States, he added.

Hayashi spoke amid concern in Japan that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which it sees as an affront to international diplomatic norms, could encourage neighbouring China to use military muscle to win control of Taiwan and threaten nearby Japanese islands.

Japan has also expressed concern about Beijing’s deepening security ties with Moscow, that have included joint drills in waters surrounding Japan.

Hayashi flew out to the aircraft carrier from Tokyo with U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, who warned that the invasion of Ukraine, which Russian describes as a “special operation”, posed security risks in regions far beyond Europe, including in the Indo Pacific.