Washington recognizes the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, administered by Japan, as Japanese, but also refers to the Southern Kuril Islands, which since 1945 have belonged to Russia (and its predecessor state, the Soviet Union) as Japanese territories.
Hillary Clinton's visit to New Zealand last month resulted in the signing of the Wellington Declaration committing the two countries to a new strategic partnership, annual military consultations and a resumption of joint military exercises. In fact what Clinton secured was the revival of the Cold War-era Australia, New Zealand, United States (ANZUS) Security Treaty which was signed during the Korean War and invoked to recruit Australian and New Zealand troops for the Vietnam War.
An Indian commentator said of the top U.S. diplomat's achievement: "Clinton was not only given a traditional New Zealand Maori's welcome called Powhiri, the greatest gift that she could bring back to Washington was the release of the New Zealand Defense White Paper 2010 two days before her arrival. The White Paper envisaged Wellington's greater presence in the South Pacific and strengthening the alliance with Washington and Canberra." [12]
Kevin Rudd, until recently Australia's prime minister and now its foreign minister, affirmed on November 28 that "Australia could be drawn in to any military conflict on the Korean peninsula under its alliance with the US." In his own words, "I...simply state the obvious: that under our alliance with the United States, Article 4 of the ANZUS Treaty is clear about our requirements to act to meet the common danger...." [13]
Similarly, a briefing note prepared for Defence Minister Peter MacKay of Canada revealed that "If war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, Canada could become embroiled due to a half-century-old United Nations military alliance," the United Nations Command formed by the U.S. and its allies in the Korean War after the armistice was signed in 1953. The memo states that although the main "fighting formation" that would lead military operations against North Korea is the joint U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command, that joint command "includes under its strategic organizational umbrella the legacy United Nations Command." [14]
Other members of the United Nations Command are Canada's fellow NATO member states the U.S., Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Turkey and Luxembourg; ANZUS members Australia and New Zealand; the Philippines and Thailand, with which the U.S. has defense alliances - and military assistance obligations - comparable to those it has with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
As with the reactivation of trilateral ANZUS military obligations, so with the U.S.-Japanese mutual military assistance agreement. On October 27 Clinton held a press conference in Hawaii with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and when asked about an island chain contested by Japan and China - the Senkakus to Tokyo, the Diaoyus to Beijing - said, "the Senkakus fall within the scope of Article 5 of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. This is part of the larger commitment that the United States has made to Japan's security. We consider the Japanese-U.S. alliance one of the most important alliance partnerships we have anywhere in the world and we are committed to our obligations to protect the Japanese."
She also said the Washington-Tokyo alliance "is the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia Pacific." [15]
Two weeks later President Obama was in Yokohama, Japan for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and told Prime Minister Naoto Kan that the U.S.-Japan alliance is "the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia Pacific" and "the commitment of the United States to the defense of Japan is unshakable." [16]
Clinton's and Obama's phraseology was identical.
In late October Clinton, flanked by her Japanese counterpart, said: "This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our alliance, which was forged at the height of the Cold War," in reference to the aforementioned Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan of 1960. [17]
In advance of the Keen Sword 2011 U.S.-Japan war games currently underway, Air Force Lieutenant General Hawk Carlisle, who is directing the exercise on the American side, stated in the middle of last month: "In 1960, Japan and the U.S. signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. Participation in Keen Sword further enhances the Japan-U.S. alliance, which remains a key strategic relationship in the Asia-Pacific region." [18]
Clinton's spokesman, the State Department's Philip Crowley, backed Japan's territorial claims on Russia's Kuril Islands on November 2, even referring to them as the Northern Territories, the Japanese government's designation. He didn't go as far as Clinton had five days earlier in pledging adherence to Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan treaty - "Each Party recognizes that an armed attack against either Party in the territories under the administration of Japan would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger" - but the prospect of Washington and Tokyo invoking the provision against Russia is not an unimaginable contingency.
On December 4 Japanese Foreign Minister Maehara will arrive at the northern island of Hokkaido "to view four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia." [19] While in Hokkaido, Maehara will meet with former residents of the Kurils.
Decades-old and until of late seemingly dormant or discarded military blocs, treaties and military assistance clauses are being resuscitated and expanded in the Asia-Pacific region. Military alliances modeled after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the area in the 1950s and their 21st century equivalents are being integrated into an eastern version of and in many ways extension of NATO. At least eight Asia-Pacific nations - Australia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Tonga - have troops assigned to NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
As part of the Afghan war effort, NATO maintains a military presence in five nations bordering western China: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
Hillary Clinton's visit to New Zealand last month resulted in the signing of the Wellington Declaration committing the two countries to a new strategic partnership, annual military consultations and a resumption of joint military exercises. In fact what Clinton secured was the revival of the Cold War-era Australia, New Zealand, United States (ANZUS) Security Treaty which was signed during the Korean War and invoked to recruit Australian and New Zealand troops for the Vietnam War.
An Indian commentator said of the top U.S. diplomat's achievement: "Clinton was not only given a traditional New Zealand Maori's welcome called Powhiri, the greatest gift that she could bring back to Washington was the release of the New Zealand Defense White Paper 2010 two days before her arrival. The White Paper envisaged Wellington's greater presence in the South Pacific and strengthening the alliance with Washington and Canberra." [12]
Kevin Rudd, until recently Australia's prime minister and now its foreign minister, affirmed on November 28 that "Australia could be drawn in to any military conflict on the Korean peninsula under its alliance with the US." In his own words, "I...simply state the obvious: that under our alliance with the United States, Article 4 of the ANZUS Treaty is clear about our requirements to act to meet the common danger...." [13]
Other members of the United Nations Command are Canada's fellow NATO member states the U.S., Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Turkey and Luxembourg; ANZUS members Australia and New Zealand; the Philippines and Thailand, with which the U.S. has defense alliances - and military assistance obligations - comparable to those it has with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
As with the reactivation of trilateral ANZUS military obligations, so with the U.S.-Japanese mutual military assistance agreement. On October 27 Clinton held a press conference in Hawaii with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and when asked about an island chain contested by Japan and China - the Senkakus to Tokyo, the Diaoyus to Beijing - said, "the Senkakus fall within the scope of Article 5 of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. This is part of the larger commitment that the United States has made to Japan's security. We consider the Japanese-U.S. alliance one of the most important alliance partnerships we have anywhere in the world and we are committed to our obligations to protect the Japanese."
She also said the Washington-Tokyo alliance "is the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia Pacific." [15]
Two weeks later President Obama was in Yokohama, Japan for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and told Prime Minister Naoto Kan that the U.S.-Japan alliance is "the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia Pacific" and "the commitment of the United States to the defense of Japan is unshakable." [16]
Clinton's and Obama's phraseology was identical.
In late October Clinton, flanked by her Japanese counterpart, said: "This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our alliance, which was forged at the height of the Cold War," in reference to the aforementioned Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan of 1960. [17]
In advance of the Keen Sword 2011 U.S.-Japan war games currently underway, Air Force Lieutenant General Hawk Carlisle, who is directing the exercise on the American side, stated in the middle of last month: "In 1960, Japan and the U.S. signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. Participation in Keen Sword further enhances the Japan-U.S. alliance, which remains a key strategic relationship in the Asia-Pacific region." [18]
Clinton's spokesman, the State Department's Philip Crowley, backed Japan's territorial claims on Russia's Kuril Islands on November 2, even referring to them as the Northern Territories, the Japanese government's designation. He didn't go as far as Clinton had five days earlier in pledging adherence to Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan treaty - "Each Party recognizes that an armed attack against either Party in the territories under the administration of Japan would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger" - but the prospect of Washington and Tokyo invoking the provision against Russia is not an unimaginable contingency.
On December 4 Japanese Foreign Minister Maehara will arrive at the northern island of Hokkaido "to view four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia." [19] While in Hokkaido, Maehara will meet with former residents of the Kurils.
Decades-old and until of late seemingly dormant or discarded military blocs, treaties and military assistance clauses are being resuscitated and expanded in the Asia-Pacific region. Military alliances modeled after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the area in the 1950s and their 21st century equivalents are being integrated into an eastern version of and in many ways extension of NATO. At least eight Asia-Pacific nations - Australia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Tonga - have troops assigned to NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
As part of the Afghan war effort, NATO maintains a military presence in five nations bordering western China: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
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