Tokyo, June 21 (UNI) Tokyo cancelled “two-plus-two” security talks with the United States after Washington asked Japan to boost defence spending to 3.5 percent of the GDP, the Financial Times newspaper reported citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had planned to meet with their Japanese counterparts, Defence Minister Gen Nakatani and Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, on July 1 in Washington.
The Financial Times said on Friday that Tokyo scrapped the meeting after a demand was made in recent weeks by US Defence Department’s official Elbridge Colby for Japan to increase defence spending to 3.5 percent of its GDP, instead of the 3 percent asked for earlier.
The newspaper specified, citing a senior Japanese official, that the decision to cancel the planned meeting was also related to the election to the upper house of Japan’s parliament. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to lose seats in the upper house election, set for July 20.
Earlier in June, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called on NATO member states to increase their defence spending from the current 2 percent to 3.5 percent of their respective GDPs, and spend another 1.5 percent on infrastructure development, defence industry and other security-related investments. US President Donald Trump previously demanded that NATO allies spend 5 percent of GDP on defence.
Japan is not a member of NATO, but is one of NATO’s partners in the Indo-Pacific region. The Hague will host the NATO summit from June 24-25. Media reports have suggested that the allies will focus primarily on NATO defence spending during the summit.
