https://mil.news.sina.com.cn/world/2019-06-27/doc-ihytcitk7940728.shtml
新浪军事 > 国际军情>正文
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特朗普质疑安保协议公平性：战时日本或通过电视看戏
2019年06月27日 08:11 观察者网
47
原标题：特朗普：美国被打，日本只需用索尼电视看戏？
[观察者网讯]
周三，美国总统特朗普在出发前往日本参加G20峰会的几个小时前，上节目质疑了美日长期防务协议的公平性。他在“打脸”日本政府前一天声明的同时，还调侃称日本“可以在索尼电视上”观看美国遭攻击。
据美国CNBC当地时间6月26日报道，特朗普当天接受福克斯商业频道采访时说：“如果日本受到攻击，我们将开打第三次世界大战。我们将加入进去，用我们的生命和财富去保护他们。”
他随后抱怨道，“我们将不惜一切代价战斗，对吗？但是如果美国受到攻击，日本却不是必须要帮助我们。他们可以在索尼电视上观看这场袭击。所以，这其中有一点不同，好吗？”
据观察者网此前报道，在第二次世界大战结束后，美国和日本分别在1951年和1960年签订了两份《美日安保条约》，确定美国拥有在日本境内驻扎军队的权利，并承诺在日本遭受攻击时保卫日本。
条约中并未明确提及日本是否有保卫美国的义务，只说“有效的自助与互助”，但根据日本战后宪法第九条中关于“放弃军队与交战权”的内容，日本是无法在美国遭到袭击时派兵支援的。
事实上，彭博社25日就曾援引三位知情人士称，特朗普最近向他们提起了有关退出与日本安保条约的事情，他认为该条约“过于片面”。不过，尽管特朗普提出过这样的想法， 但他尚未对此作出任何实际举动，而他们觉得这种事也极不可能发生。
当天下午，针对美媒报道称特朗普提及撕毁《美日安保条约》一事，日本官房长官菅义伟急忙出面灭火称：“完全不存在报道中所提的事情。从美国白宫方面接到的确认消息也称‘这与美国政府的立场不符’。”
不料，特朗普第二天就亲口质疑美日防务条约，“打脸”日本的否认。另据日本外务省消息，驻日美军指挥官施耐德中将（Kevin Schneider）25日刚会见了日本外务大臣河野太郎。
值得注意的是，在日本政府首次出面否认后，日媒仍旧认为，在美国前国防部长马蒂斯等重视盟友派离任的情况下，因特朗普愈加无法预测而产生的担忧正持续升温，其透露出了轻视盟友的姿态。
CNBC则指出，特朗普的言论符合其“美国优先”的外交政策愿景，其通常对国际义务持怀疑态度。在谈论日本之前，特朗普还发表了一番“综述”，声称“世界上几乎所有的国家都对美国极尽利用。这真令人难以置信。”
而这次，日本驻华盛顿大使馆并没有立即回应相关置评请求。
https://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2019-06-27/doc-ihytcitk7948886.shtml
特朗普：美国要被袭击了 日本不会帮忙只会看热闹
特朗普：美国要被袭击了 日本不会帮忙只会看热闹
2,152
特朗普接受电话采访（富士电视台）
海外网6月27日电 美国总统特朗普近来频频表示出考虑让美国退出《美日安保条约》的意向。26日，特朗普在采访中称，如果美国被袭击了，日本只会看热闹，表示了对《美日安保条约》的不满。
综合美国有线电视新闻网、日本富士电视台报道，26日，特朗普接受了福克斯财经频道的电话采访。谈及《美日安保条约》时他表示：“日本如果受到袭击，就是第三次世界大战，美国将拼全力战斗。但是，要是我们被袭击了，日本也不是必须帮助我们，他们只会看着索尼电视了解战斗情况。”
外媒称，特朗普称一旦开战，日本只会“看热闹”，表示了对《美日安保条约》的不满。
安倍与特朗普（日文版中央日报）
美国彭博社25日报道称，特朗普私下里向不止一位“心腹”表示，他正考虑让美国退出《美日安保条约》，他认为该条约对美国很不公平，过于一边倒。因为《美日安保条约》承诺如果日本遭到攻击，美国将出手相助，但并未规定日本军队对美国防务承担类似义务。该条约于60多年前签署，构成了第二次世界大战后两国之间联盟的基础。除此之外，特朗普还提及了日本一再试图将冲绳美军基地搬迁一事，特朗普认为这是一种强占土地的行为。
目前美军在日本境内驻有约5.4万人。一旦特朗普真的决定退出《美日安保条约》，驻日美军受到的影响将难以预测。消息一出，日本政府赶忙出面“灭火”。日本内阁官房长官菅义伟在25日的记者会上表示，完全不存在报道中所提的事情。“美国总统已经向我们确认不会退出安保条约，如果这么做会违背美国的政策原则”。日本上智大学综合国际学部教授前嶋和弘也称，特朗普的言论是“私人谈话内容”，目前不应该过分解读。
美国传统基金会学者卡拉法诺曾表示，没有任何条款要求美国必须永远遵守该条约，美国应重新审视美日战略同盟政策。（海外网/王珊宁）
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/26/politics/trump-japan-defense-commitments/index.html
Trump claims Japan 'doesn't have to help' if US is attacked
By Zachary Cohen, CNN
Updated 1746 GMT (0146 HKT) June 26, 2019
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump again lamented what he views as an unequal military alliance Wednesday, claiming that if the US is attacked, Japan "doesn't have to help us at all" and "can watch it on the Sony television."
Trump's criticism of Japan came during an interview with on Fox Business Network when he was asked about the possibility of bilateral trade deals ahead of his G20 trip, where he will meet with several counterparts, including Japanese President Shinzo Abe.
"Let me start off with general statement -- almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage," of the US, Trump told Fox Business by phone, repeating a common refrain of his 2016 campaign.
The President then criticized NATO broadly, before singling out Japan for the terms of its military alliance with the US.
The US isn't interested in dialogue with Iran, France says
"If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three ... with our lives and with our treasure," he said, adding, "If we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us at all," Trump said. Japan, he claimed, "can watch it on the Sony television, okay, the attack."
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Trump had privately mused about withdrawing from a longstanding defense treaty between the US and Japan because he views it as one sided.
And it appears Trump was again referring to that same agreement in his interview with Fox Business on Wednesday.
The US has been a close military and diplomatic ally of Tokyo for more than 70 years. The two countries first signed the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, officially ending World War II.
The agreement was revised in 1960 as the "Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan," which allows the US to maintain military bases in Japan with the understanding that it would defend Japan if it were ever attacked.
The 36 most shocking lines from Donald Trump's interview with The Hill
However, Trump has repeatedly urged military allies in east Asia to pay for their own defense, teasing the end of a US military presence in the region while encouraging Japan to buy more American weapons to better protect itself against threats from North Korea.
Ahead of the G20 summit, which will be held in Japan, Trump is again voicing his frustration over military agreements with key allies.
Trump has long criticized NATO countries over their failure to spend enough on defense and meet the 2% of GDP target recommended by the alliance, a target being met by only seven members presently.
While previous presidents had made similar critiques of NATO members' defense spending, Trump has made it a central theme of his presidential campaign and his administration's foreign policy, once calling the alliance "obsolete" and repeatedly slamming allies over the spending issue and linking it to trade disputes with the European Union.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...n-us-alliance-before-g20-summit-idUSKCN1TS057
Trump renews criticism of Japan-US alliance before G20 summit
Linda Sieg, Daniel Leussink
3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the U.S.-Japan security alliance, the linchpin of Tokyo’s security policies, ahead of talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Osaka this week.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during delivering a speech to Japanese and U.S. troops as they aboard Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's (JMSDF) helicopter carrier DDH-184 Kaga at JMSDF Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan, May 28, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo
Trump was responding to a question in a Fox television interview in Washington on Wednesday about what bilateral deals he would like to see with various countries including Japan. Tokyo and Washington are engaged in difficult trade talks as Trump’s administration seeks to lower the U.S. trade deficit.
“Almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage of the United States ... Like even Japan on the treaty, we have a treaty with Japan. If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three,” Trump said.
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“We will go in and we will protect them and we will fight with our lives and with our treasure. We will fight at all costs, right? But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television, the attack.”
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, asked about the remarks, said the two governments had not discussed revising the treaty and dismissed the notion that the pact was unfair.
“The obligations of the United States and Japan ... are balanced between both countries,” he told a news conference.
Under the decades-old U.S.-Japan security treaty, the United States has committed to defending Japan, which renounced the right to wage war after its defeat in World War Two.
Japan in return provides military bases that Washington uses to project power deep into Asia, including the biggest concentration of U.S. Marines outside the United States on Okinawa, and the forward deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group at the Yokosuka naval base near Tokyo.
Trump is scheduled to hold nine bilateral meetings, with nations such as Japan, China and Russia, at the June 28-29 G20 summit.
A deterioration in U.S.-Japan ties that resulted in an end to the security pact, which puts Japan under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, could force Washington to withdraw a major portion of its military forces from Asia at a time when China’s military power is growing.
It would also force Japan to seek new alliances in the region and bolster its own defenses, raising concern about nuclear proliferation in the tense region.
On a visit to Japan in May, Trump said he expected Japan’s military to reinforce U.S. forces throughout Asia and elsewhere as Tokyo bolsters the ability of its forces to operate further from its shores.
Abe, who has cultivated warm ties with Trump since the U.S. leader took office, has pledged to strengthen Japan’s defenses. He also wants to revise the nation’s post-war, pacifist constitution to clarify the ambiguous status of its military.
Editing by Michael Perry
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
https://www.ft.com/content/506adafa-9864-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36
Trump blasts US-Japan defence alliance ahead of G20
President says Japanese would watch ‘on a Sony television’ if America were attacked
Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, left, and Donald Trump, US president in New York last September. Mr Trump has criticised Japan for not bearing more of the cost of hosting US troops in the country © AFP
Demetri Sevastopulo in Tokyo, Kiran Stacey in Washington and Rochelle Toplensky in Brussels
4 hours ago
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Donald Trump criticised Japan ahead of his arrival in Osaka for the G20 summit, saying the US-Japan defence alliance was lopsided and Tokyo would watch “on a Sony television” instead of fighting if the US came under attack.
In an interview with Fox Business, the US president said Washington was obliged under a decades-old mutual security treaty to defend Japan if the country came under attack, but that there was no reciprocal obligation.
“If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure,” Mr Trump said on Wednesday. “We will fight at all costs . . . but if we are attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch on a Sony television.”
What does the president hope to gain by attacking the major ally who supports him more than any other right now?
Michael Green, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Mr Trump also launched a broadside against the EU and India. The president lashed out at Brussels for its pursuit of US technology companies in a series of antitrust investigations and slammed New Delhi in a tweet for introducing retaliatory tariffs after Washington revoked the country’s special trade privileges affecting about $6bn worth of goods.
The president said Margrethe Vestager, the EU antitrust commissioner, “hates” America hours after she launched an antitrust investigation against Broadcom, the US chipmaker. Brussels believes the company is “likely to hold a dominant position” in supplying components for modems and television set-top boxes. Broadcom said in a statement that “it complies with European competition rules and that the Commission’s concerns are without merit”.
Ms Vestager has previously won praise in Europe for her probes of Amazon, Google and Apple over allegedly abusing their market dominance or tax avoidance.
“She hates the United States perhaps worse than any person I’ve ever met,” Mr Trump said. “What she does to our country. She’s suing all our companies. We should be suing Google and Facebook . . . They’re suing Apple. They’re suing everybody.”
Mr Trump has frequently criticised Japan and South Korea, another key US ally in Asia, for not bearing more of the cost of hosting American troops in their respective countries. But his latest comments will raise concerns in Tokyo as Mr Trump prepares to meet Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, on Friday.
His comments will also cause worry in South Korea, which will host Mr Trump later this week for meetings with Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, at the weekend.
In two recent meetings between Mr Trump and Mr Abe — in Washington in May and in Tokyo earlier this month — the Japanese prime minister was relieved that the president did not press him on the alliance. Ahead of those meetings, White House aides and Japanese officials had worried Mr Trump might attack the deal, which is viewed by experts as the linchpin of security in the Asia-Pacific.
Mr Trump has previously suggested that Japan and South Korea should adopt a “cost plus 50” formula that would see the countries pay the full cost of hosting US troops as well as an additional 50 per cent.
During a visit to Japan earlier this month, Mr Trump declared that the US-Japan alliance “has never been stronger” but said Mr Abe was constantly trying to flatter him in an effort to ward off attacks about burden-sharing.
Michael Green, a Japan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank, said Mr Trump’s comments were “ignorant” since there were “few scenarios” for conflict in Asia where the US and Japan would not both be in harm’s way.
“What does the president hope to gain by attacking the major ally who supports him more than any other right now?” said Mr Green. “Abe is infinitely patient but may be feeling a bit like [former Trump wives] Ivana [Trump] or Marla Maples these days. [But] he knows that the president is completely isolated within Washington in these views.”
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The critical remarks about a key US ally come as Mr Trump prepares to meet Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, at the G20. The president has frequently criticised Nato countries — with Germany taking the brunt of the attack — that have not met an alliance-wide goal to spend 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. At a Nato summit in Brussels last year, Mr Trump launched an aggressive attack on Ms Merkel that stunned other leaders.
While previous US administrations have criticised Europe for not spending more on defence, Mr Trump has drawn fire for making personal attacks on the leaders of US allies as he appeared to cosy up to Vladimir Putin, Russian president. Some Democratic presidential contenders, and particularly former vice-president Joe Biden, have castigated Mr Trump for taking an aggressive approach towards allies.
新浪军事 > 国际军情>正文
新闻
特朗普质疑安保协议公平性：战时日本或通过电视看戏
2019年06月27日 08:11 观察者网
47
原标题：特朗普：美国被打，日本只需用索尼电视看戏？
[观察者网讯]
周三，美国总统特朗普在出发前往日本参加G20峰会的几个小时前，上节目质疑了美日长期防务协议的公平性。他在“打脸”日本政府前一天声明的同时，还调侃称日本“可以在索尼电视上”观看美国遭攻击。
据美国CNBC当地时间6月26日报道，特朗普当天接受福克斯商业频道采访时说：“如果日本受到攻击，我们将开打第三次世界大战。我们将加入进去，用我们的生命和财富去保护他们。”
他随后抱怨道，“我们将不惜一切代价战斗，对吗？但是如果美国受到攻击，日本却不是必须要帮助我们。他们可以在索尼电视上观看这场袭击。所以，这其中有一点不同，好吗？”
据观察者网此前报道，在第二次世界大战结束后，美国和日本分别在1951年和1960年签订了两份《美日安保条约》，确定美国拥有在日本境内驻扎军队的权利，并承诺在日本遭受攻击时保卫日本。
条约中并未明确提及日本是否有保卫美国的义务，只说“有效的自助与互助”，但根据日本战后宪法第九条中关于“放弃军队与交战权”的内容，日本是无法在美国遭到袭击时派兵支援的。
事实上，彭博社25日就曾援引三位知情人士称，特朗普最近向他们提起了有关退出与日本安保条约的事情，他认为该条约“过于片面”。不过，尽管特朗普提出过这样的想法， 但他尚未对此作出任何实际举动，而他们觉得这种事也极不可能发生。
当天下午，针对美媒报道称特朗普提及撕毁《美日安保条约》一事，日本官房长官菅义伟急忙出面灭火称：“完全不存在报道中所提的事情。从美国白宫方面接到的确认消息也称‘这与美国政府的立场不符’。”
不料，特朗普第二天就亲口质疑美日防务条约，“打脸”日本的否认。另据日本外务省消息，驻日美军指挥官施耐德中将（Kevin Schneider）25日刚会见了日本外务大臣河野太郎。
值得注意的是，在日本政府首次出面否认后，日媒仍旧认为，在美国前国防部长马蒂斯等重视盟友派离任的情况下，因特朗普愈加无法预测而产生的担忧正持续升温，其透露出了轻视盟友的姿态。
CNBC则指出，特朗普的言论符合其“美国优先”的外交政策愿景，其通常对国际义务持怀疑态度。在谈论日本之前，特朗普还发表了一番“综述”，声称“世界上几乎所有的国家都对美国极尽利用。这真令人难以置信。”
https://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2019-06-27/doc-ihytcitk7948886.shtml
特朗普：美国要被袭击了 日本不会帮忙只会看热闹
特朗普：美国要被袭击了 日本不会帮忙只会看热闹
2,152
特朗普接受电话采访（富士电视台）
海外网6月27日电 美国总统特朗普近来频频表示出考虑让美国退出《美日安保条约》的意向。26日，特朗普在采访中称，如果美国被袭击了，日本只会看热闹，表示了对《美日安保条约》的不满。
综合美国有线电视新闻网、日本富士电视台报道，26日，特朗普接受了福克斯财经频道的电话采访。谈及《美日安保条约》时他表示：“日本如果受到袭击，就是第三次世界大战，美国将拼全力战斗。但是，要是我们被袭击了，日本也不是必须帮助我们，他们只会看着索尼电视了解战斗情况。”
外媒称，特朗普称一旦开战，日本只会“看热闹”，表示了对《美日安保条约》的不满。
安倍与特朗普（日文版中央日报）
美国彭博社25日报道称，特朗普私下里向不止一位“心腹”表示，他正考虑让美国退出《美日安保条约》，他认为该条约对美国很不公平，过于一边倒。因为《美日安保条约》承诺如果日本遭到攻击，美国将出手相助，但并未规定日本军队对美国防务承担类似义务。该条约于60多年前签署，构成了第二次世界大战后两国之间联盟的基础。除此之外，特朗普还提及了日本一再试图将冲绳美军基地搬迁一事，特朗普认为这是一种强占土地的行为。
目前美军在日本境内驻有约5.4万人。一旦特朗普真的决定退出《美日安保条约》，驻日美军受到的影响将难以预测。消息一出，日本政府赶忙出面“灭火”。日本内阁官房长官菅义伟在25日的记者会上表示，完全不存在报道中所提的事情。“美国总统已经向我们确认不会退出安保条约，如果这么做会违背美国的政策原则”。日本上智大学综合国际学部教授前嶋和弘也称，特朗普的言论是“私人谈话内容”，目前不应该过分解读。
美国传统基金会学者卡拉法诺曾表示，没有任何条款要求美国必须永远遵守该条约，美国应重新审视美日战略同盟政策。（海外网/王珊宁）
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/26/politics/trump-japan-defense-commitments/index.html
Trump claims Japan 'doesn't have to help' if US is attacked
By Zachary Cohen, CNN
Updated 1746 GMT (0146 HKT) June 26, 2019
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump again lamented what he views as an unequal military alliance Wednesday, claiming that if the US is attacked, Japan "doesn't have to help us at all" and "can watch it on the Sony television."
Trump's criticism of Japan came during an interview with on Fox Business Network when he was asked about the possibility of bilateral trade deals ahead of his G20 trip, where he will meet with several counterparts, including Japanese President Shinzo Abe.
"Let me start off with general statement -- almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage," of the US, Trump told Fox Business by phone, repeating a common refrain of his 2016 campaign.
The President then criticized NATO broadly, before singling out Japan for the terms of its military alliance with the US.
The US isn't interested in dialogue with Iran, France says
"If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three ... with our lives and with our treasure," he said, adding, "If we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us at all," Trump said. Japan, he claimed, "can watch it on the Sony television, okay, the attack."
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Trump had privately mused about withdrawing from a longstanding defense treaty between the US and Japan because he views it as one sided.
And it appears Trump was again referring to that same agreement in his interview with Fox Business on Wednesday.
The US has been a close military and diplomatic ally of Tokyo for more than 70 years. The two countries first signed the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, officially ending World War II.
The agreement was revised in 1960 as the "Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan," which allows the US to maintain military bases in Japan with the understanding that it would defend Japan if it were ever attacked.
The 36 most shocking lines from Donald Trump's interview with The Hill
However, Trump has repeatedly urged military allies in east Asia to pay for their own defense, teasing the end of a US military presence in the region while encouraging Japan to buy more American weapons to better protect itself against threats from North Korea.
Ahead of the G20 summit, which will be held in Japan, Trump is again voicing his frustration over military agreements with key allies.
Trump has long criticized NATO countries over their failure to spend enough on defense and meet the 2% of GDP target recommended by the alliance, a target being met by only seven members presently.
While previous presidents had made similar critiques of NATO members' defense spending, Trump has made it a central theme of his presidential campaign and his administration's foreign policy, once calling the alliance "obsolete" and repeatedly slamming allies over the spending issue and linking it to trade disputes with the European Union.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...n-us-alliance-before-g20-summit-idUSKCN1TS057
Trump renews criticism of Japan-US alliance before G20 summit
Linda Sieg, Daniel Leussink
3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the U.S.-Japan security alliance, the linchpin of Tokyo’s security policies, ahead of talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Osaka this week.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during delivering a speech to Japanese and U.S. troops as they aboard Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's (JMSDF) helicopter carrier DDH-184 Kaga at JMSDF Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan, May 28, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo
Trump was responding to a question in a Fox television interview in Washington on Wednesday about what bilateral deals he would like to see with various countries including Japan. Tokyo and Washington are engaged in difficult trade talks as Trump’s administration seeks to lower the U.S. trade deficit.
“Almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage of the United States ... Like even Japan on the treaty, we have a treaty with Japan. If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three,” Trump said.
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“We will go in and we will protect them and we will fight with our lives and with our treasure. We will fight at all costs, right? But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television, the attack.”
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, asked about the remarks, said the two governments had not discussed revising the treaty and dismissed the notion that the pact was unfair.
“The obligations of the United States and Japan ... are balanced between both countries,” he told a news conference.
Under the decades-old U.S.-Japan security treaty, the United States has committed to defending Japan, which renounced the right to wage war after its defeat in World War Two.
Japan in return provides military bases that Washington uses to project power deep into Asia, including the biggest concentration of U.S. Marines outside the United States on Okinawa, and the forward deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group at the Yokosuka naval base near Tokyo.
Trump is scheduled to hold nine bilateral meetings, with nations such as Japan, China and Russia, at the June 28-29 G20 summit.
A deterioration in U.S.-Japan ties that resulted in an end to the security pact, which puts Japan under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, could force Washington to withdraw a major portion of its military forces from Asia at a time when China’s military power is growing.
It would also force Japan to seek new alliances in the region and bolster its own defenses, raising concern about nuclear proliferation in the tense region.
On a visit to Japan in May, Trump said he expected Japan’s military to reinforce U.S. forces throughout Asia and elsewhere as Tokyo bolsters the ability of its forces to operate further from its shores.
Abe, who has cultivated warm ties with Trump since the U.S. leader took office, has pledged to strengthen Japan’s defenses. He also wants to revise the nation’s post-war, pacifist constitution to clarify the ambiguous status of its military.
Editing by Michael Perry
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
https://www.ft.com/content/506adafa-9864-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36
Trump blasts US-Japan defence alliance ahead of G20
President says Japanese would watch ‘on a Sony television’ if America were attacked
Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, left, and Donald Trump, US president in New York last September. Mr Trump has criticised Japan for not bearing more of the cost of hosting US troops in the country © AFP
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Demetri Sevastopulo in Tokyo, Kiran Stacey in Washington and Rochelle Toplensky in Brussels
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Donald Trump criticised Japan ahead of his arrival in Osaka for the G20 summit, saying the US-Japan defence alliance was lopsided and Tokyo would watch “on a Sony television” instead of fighting if the US came under attack.
In an interview with Fox Business, the US president said Washington was obliged under a decades-old mutual security treaty to defend Japan if the country came under attack, but that there was no reciprocal obligation.
“If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure,” Mr Trump said on Wednesday. “We will fight at all costs . . . but if we are attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch on a Sony television.”
What does the president hope to gain by attacking the major ally who supports him more than any other right now?
Michael Green, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Mr Trump also launched a broadside against the EU and India. The president lashed out at Brussels for its pursuit of US technology companies in a series of antitrust investigations and slammed New Delhi in a tweet for introducing retaliatory tariffs after Washington revoked the country’s special trade privileges affecting about $6bn worth of goods.
The president said Margrethe Vestager, the EU antitrust commissioner, “hates” America hours after she launched an antitrust investigation against Broadcom, the US chipmaker. Brussels believes the company is “likely to hold a dominant position” in supplying components for modems and television set-top boxes. Broadcom said in a statement that “it complies with European competition rules and that the Commission’s concerns are without merit”.
Ms Vestager has previously won praise in Europe for her probes of Amazon, Google and Apple over allegedly abusing their market dominance or tax avoidance.
“She hates the United States perhaps worse than any person I’ve ever met,” Mr Trump said. “What she does to our country. She’s suing all our companies. We should be suing Google and Facebook . . . They’re suing Apple. They’re suing everybody.”
Mr Trump has frequently criticised Japan and South Korea, another key US ally in Asia, for not bearing more of the cost of hosting American troops in their respective countries. But his latest comments will raise concerns in Tokyo as Mr Trump prepares to meet Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, on Friday.
His comments will also cause worry in South Korea, which will host Mr Trump later this week for meetings with Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, at the weekend.
In two recent meetings between Mr Trump and Mr Abe — in Washington in May and in Tokyo earlier this month — the Japanese prime minister was relieved that the president did not press him on the alliance. Ahead of those meetings, White House aides and Japanese officials had worried Mr Trump might attack the deal, which is viewed by experts as the linchpin of security in the Asia-Pacific.
Mr Trump has previously suggested that Japan and South Korea should adopt a “cost plus 50” formula that would see the countries pay the full cost of hosting US troops as well as an additional 50 per cent.
During a visit to Japan earlier this month, Mr Trump declared that the US-Japan alliance “has never been stronger” but said Mr Abe was constantly trying to flatter him in an effort to ward off attacks about burden-sharing.
Michael Green, a Japan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank, said Mr Trump’s comments were “ignorant” since there were “few scenarios” for conflict in Asia where the US and Japan would not both be in harm’s way.
“What does the president hope to gain by attacking the major ally who supports him more than any other right now?” said Mr Green. “Abe is infinitely patient but may be feeling a bit like [former Trump wives] Ivana [Trump] or Marla Maples these days. [But] he knows that the president is completely isolated within Washington in these views.”
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The critical remarks about a key US ally come as Mr Trump prepares to meet Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, at the G20. The president has frequently criticised Nato countries — with Germany taking the brunt of the attack — that have not met an alliance-wide goal to spend 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. At a Nato summit in Brussels last year, Mr Trump launched an aggressive attack on Ms Merkel that stunned other leaders.
While previous US administrations have criticised Europe for not spending more on defence, Mr Trump has drawn fire for making personal attacks on the leaders of US allies as he appeared to cosy up to Vladimir Putin, Russian president. Some Democratic presidential contenders, and particularly former vice-president Joe Biden, have castigated Mr Trump for taking an aggressive approach towards allies.
