Japan-US defence pact to include far-flung disputed islands

Japan and the US will probably include an explicit reference to defence of far-flung Japanese-claimed islands in an update of security cooperation guidelines amid concerns about China's increasing military assertiveness, Japanese media have reported.

The Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday that Japan had requested the revision include a clear commitment by US forces in the event of an attack on Japanese-claimed islands. Tokyo is locked in a long-running dispute with Beijing over the islets in the East China Sea known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Senkaku Islands in Japan.

The allies are expected to announce agreement over the revised guidelines later this month. US President Barack Obama is due to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington on April 28 for a summit.

Obama has said the Japanese-controlled isles are covered by a bilateral security treaty obliging the US to defend Japan, but Washington has also made clear it does not want to get dragged into a Sino-Japanese conflict.

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter repeated the commitment last week during talks with Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani in Tokyo. "I reaffirmed President Obama's July 2014 commitment to apply our security treaty to all areas under Japanese administration and our continued strong opposition to any unilateral coercive action that seeks to undermine Japan's administrative control of the Senkaku Islands," Ash said.

Patrol vessels and fighter jets from both Japan and China regularly shadow each other near the tiny, uninhabited islets, raising fears that a confrontation could develop into a clash.