News / Foreign Policy

Trump calls for revising 'unfair' US-Japan military treaty in meeting with Abe

Saturday, 29 June 2019 10:32 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 29 June 2019 10:36 AM ]

US President Donald Trump (L) is welcomed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the G20 summit in Osak, July 28, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized a decades-old military treaty with Japan as “unfair,” says he told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the latest meeting that the deal needs to be revised.

Trump made the remarks at a news conference after a two-day summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Japan's western city of Osaka on Friday. He met Abe

“I said, look, if someone attacks Japan, we go after them and we are in a battle, full force, in effect," he said. "If somebody should attack the United States, they don't have to do that. That's unfair.”

Japan denies Trump's claim

Later on Friday, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura said “there was no discussion of revising the Japan-US security treaty at all” during Friday’s meeting between Abe and Trump .

“The two leaders agreed to further strengthen the unshakable Japan-US alliance as they have done in the past,” Nishimura said.

The US president, who has abandoned several treaties and agreements since taking office, says he is not planning to withdraw from the treaty with Japan.

The treaty, signed after Japan's surrender in World War Two, commits the United States to defend Japan. Tokyo, in return, provides military bases that Washington uses to project power deep into Asia.

PressTV-Russia warns Japan over new military alliance with US

Russia warns against Japan’s security alliance with the US, denouncing the move as a threat and an impediment to improving bilateral ties between Tokyo and Moscow.

Earlier this week, Trump strongly criticized the treaty with Japan during an interview with Fox Business, saying under the current terms of the agreement the US should take everything in its power to defend Japan in but Japan doesn't have to do anything if the US is attacked.

“If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three”, the president said in the interview. “We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure. We will fight at all costs, right?”

“But if we are attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all”, he said. “They can watch on a Sony television the attack.”

Experts say a possible end to the treaty is widely seen as raising the risk of forcing Washington to withdraw a major portion of its military forces from Asia. It has stationed some 50,000 troops only in Japan.

An expert on US politics in Tokyo, Yasushi Watanabe, said Trump “has long believed America has been forced to shoulder excessive burdens because of some frameworks of international relations.”

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