(Bloomberg) -- US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his Japanese counterpart agreed during their first phone call to expand their nations’ joint military presence around Japanese islands in the East China Sea, according to Japan’s defense ministry.
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Hegseth also confirmed to Defense Minister Gen Nakatani that the US-Japan defense treaty covers a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, according to the account of the call held Thursday evening US time.
Armed Chinese coast guard vessels regularly sail close to the uninhabited islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The US doesn’t take a position on sovereignty of the islands, but successive US administrations have agreed that the mutual defense treaty with Japan would be invoked if there was an attack on the islands.
During the call, the ministers agreed to continue efforts to strengthen the alliance, including improving the U.S.-Japan command-and-control framework, the defense ministry said. Last year, the US announced plans to create a new joint military force headquarters in Japan that will operate alongside a new combined operations command for Japan’s military.
“The two ministers agreed that Japan and the US will work together to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the ministry said in its account.
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