REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TOKYO - The United States moved on Sunday to reassure Tokyo over its mounting security concerns, saying it would send more missile defense ships to Japan following North Korean launches and use a high level trip to warn China against abusing its "great power."
Japan has watched with alarm in recent weeks as North Korea carried out a series of missile launches, including firing two medium-range missiles capable of hitting the US ally. Tokyo has also voiced growing anxiety over China's military buildup and increasingly assertive behavior in a territorial dispute over East China Sea islands.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that two Navy destroyers equipped with missile defense systems would be deployed to Japan by 2017. It was a response, he said, to provocations from the North, which has also threatened to carry out a "new form" of nuclear test.
The announcement followed other steps taken by the Pentagon to bolster its military posture in Japan, including an October decision to position a second X-band missile defense radar there. That radar is expected to be operational this year.
"These steps will greatly enhance our ability to defend both Japan and the US homeland from North Korean ballistic missile threats," Hagel told reporters at Japan's defense ministry.
Narushige Michishita, associate professor and security expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, said the moves were "part of the US attempt to bolster reassurances vis-à-vis Japan."
It also fits within the context of broader American efforts to bolster its military presence in the region, part of a strategic "rebalance" or "pivot" toward Asia that President Barack Obama will emphasize during his trip this month to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.
As Washington pivots, China has been ramping up military spending, building new submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles and testing emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air -- technologies the Pentagon says appear designed to counter US military capabilities.
China is also becoming more assertive in territorial disputes, including last year declaring an air defense identification zone covering disputed, Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea.
Hagel, who leaves for Beijing on Monday, called China a great power, but used unusually strong language about how nations should wield such power, saying they must not resort to coercion or intimidation. That, he warned, could trigger conflict.
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