US and Japan send message to China
The US is stepping up efforts to defend Japan against threats from North Korea and China. Several disputed islands in the South and East China Sea have the potential to threaten the stability of the entire region.
During his recent trip to Tokyo, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reassured Japan that there is no “weakness on the part of the United States as to our complete and absolute commitment to the security of Japan,” emphasizing the US’s strategic rebalancing, or so-called “pivot” towards Asia.
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“Until Secretary Hagel’s visit, people were talking more openly – ‘imagine this could happen in Senkaku, would the US be there?’,” Yuki Tatsumi, senior associate at the Stimson Center, a US think tank, told DW. She says Hagel’s visit has therefore been well-received in Japan.
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