Editor’s Note: This piece by Tim Kelly features quotes from CSP Senior Fellow Grant Newsham.
TOKYO, Jan 11 (Reuters) – The United States plans to shake up its marine force on Japan’s Okinawa islands as Tokyo undertakes its biggest military build up since World War Two that will double defence spending over five years to deter China from attacking Taiwan or nearby Japanese islands.
Japan and the United States want to reinforce the islands separating the East China Sea from the Western Pacific because they are close to Taiwan and form part of what military planners refer to as the ‘First Island Chain’ extending down to Indonesia, that hems in China’s forces.
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“Defense needs to be a combined affair, with Japanese and American capabilities and resources seamlessly linked together,” said Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies who served as a liaison officer to the SDF.
“This improves training opportunities and also lets you move about and operate in the area you most likely will have to fight in,” he added.
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