Senkaku Islands fall under Japan-US security pact, defence chiefs confirm

Japan’s Nobuo Kishi and US acting defence secretary Christopher Miller held talks on Saturday in which they also discussed North Korea

President-elect Joe Biden earlier in the week told Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga that the US will help defend the uninhabited islands, known as Diaoyu in China

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Japan's Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi held talks with his US counterpart on the Senkaku island chain, which China also claims and calls Diaoyu. Photo: AP

Published: 2:00pm, 14 Nov 2020Updated: 2:08pm, 14 Nov 2020

The defence chiefs of Japan and the United States on Saturday confirmed that the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea fall under the scope of a security treaty between the two countries.

Speaking by phone, Japan’s Nobuo Kishi and US acting defence secretary Christopher Miller referred to the application of Article 5 of the treaty to contingencies surrounding the Japanese-controlled islands which China also claims and calls Diaoyu, according to Japan’s Defence Ministry.

The article obliges the United States to respond to armed attacks on territories under Japan’s administration. Separately, US president-elect Joe Biden on Thursday assured Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in their first phone talks that Washington will help defend the uninhabited islands.

“We are opposed to a unilateral change of the status quo” by force, Kishi said in reference to China’s rising maritime assertiveness.

China, which has stepped up its territorial claims in the East China Sea and South China Sea, regularly sends ships to the islands.

Other issues discussed by Kishi and Miller included North Korea and Japan’s new missile defence plan, according to the ministry.

They agreed that Japan and the United States will continue to cooperate in cracking down on North Korea’s ship-to-ship transfers of goods banned by the UN Security Council, in addition to sharing concern over Pyongyang’s missile development programme, it said.

Miller assumed the post of acting defence secretary after US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday that he had fired Mark Esper

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