By KUNA,
Tokyo : US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that the presence of American forces in Japan is critical for regional stability amid threats from North Korea and China’s growing influence.
“To deal with this century’s critical challenges, critical component will remain the forward presence of US military forces in Japan,” Gates said in a speech at Tokyo’s Keio University. “Without such a presence, North Korea military provocations could be more outrageous or worse. China might behave more assertively toward its neighbors.” Gates also called on Japan to cooperate on an eight-month dispute over the controversial relocation plan for the US Futenma Marine Air Station in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa.
Gates and Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Thursday pledged to implement the 2010 accord to move the US Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station to Nago from the densely populated area of Ginowan, both in Okinawa. But the Japanese government still faces strong domestic opposition to the plan from local residents, as many islanders want the Futenma Air Base moved off Okinawa entirely.
Okinawa, which had been occupied by the US until 1972, has more than half of 50,000 American troops in the nation. About 75 percent of all US military facilities in the country are also located in Okinawa, Japan’s poorest prefecture with a population of around 1.4 million.
Gates also urged Japan to take an even greater regional and global leadership role that reflects its political, economic and military capacity. “By showing more willingness to send self defense force abroad under international auspices consistent to your constitution, Japan is taking right places alongside with other great democracies,” the US defense chief said.
Gates called China’s military modernization as “opaque” and is a “source of concern to its neighbors,” and warned that advances made by the Chinese military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare pose potential challenges to US forces operating in the Pacific region.
Asked by students about the possible weakening of China’s civilian control over its military, Gates noted that there have been some signs of “disconnect” between the military and civilian leadership in China over the past several years, citing the apparent unawareness of the Chinese leadership about the latest testing of the Chinese-made J-20 stealth fighter that took place during his visit to Beijing earlier this week.
Such disconnect is the reason why the US is pushing China to launch a bilateral forum where military and civilian leaders from the two nations will discuss security issues, he said. “Although on some specific operations issues, we think there have been communication gaps, in a larger sense of who controls the Chinese military, there is no doubt in my mind it is President Hu Jintao and the civilian leadership of that government.” Gates, who arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday from Beijing, left for Seoul immediately after the speech.