US, Japan agree China represents greatest shared strategic challenge

Both the United States and Japan consider China to be the greatest shared strategic challenge that Washington, Tokyo, and their allies currently face, US State Secretary Antony Blinken said after the 2+2 ministerial meeting with Japanese counterparts.

"We agree that the PRC [the People's Republic of China] is the greatest shared strategic challenge that we and our allies and partners face," Blinken said on Wednesday during a press briefing in Washington.

"We stand together with Ukraine against (Russian) President Putin's war," he added.

US top diplomat and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomed their counterparts Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada for the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee meeting to discuss a broad range of security-related issues.

The foreign and defence officials of the two countries agreed that China's growing power poses the "greatest strategic challenge" in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, Japan's Kyodo News reported.

The two sides also promised to reinforce deterrence as well as expand the scope of their security treaty even into space.

Japanese Foreign Minister agreed with his US counterpart and said that China's foreign policy is aimed at establishing an international order that would serve Beijing's interests and that is a great concern for the US-Japan alliance .

Hayashi added that the United States and Japan strongly oppose China's unlawful claims and coercive and provocative actions in the South China Sea.

The meeting between the two sides took place just weeks after Japan endorsed new security and defence strategy documents putting Tokyo on a path to acquire "counterstrike" capabilities.

"The ministers concurred that China's foreign policy seeks to reshape the international order to its benefit and to employ China's growing political, economic, military and technological power to that end," a joint statement said, as quoted by Kyodo News. "This behaviour is of serious concern to the alliance and the entire international community.