Mullen: U.S.-Japan Alliance Serves as Model for Others

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2011 — The chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on his first vis­it to Japan since it suf­fered a dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake and tsuna­mi in March, today praised the U.S.-Japanese alliance and said the two nations must expand such rela­tions through­out the Pacif­ic region.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, speak­ing at a news con­fer­ence from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, offered con­do­lences to the Japan­ese peo­ple in the after­math of the nat­ur­al dis­as­ter and said the Unit­ed States still is com­mit­ted to help­ing its ally how­ev­er it can. His vis­it is part of an East Asia tour this week that includ­ed trips to Chi­na and South Korea. 

“Watch­ing from afar, I must also say that I was inspired by the dig­ni­ty, the strength, the grace and resilience with which Japan­ese cit­i­zens respond­ed to the shock,” he said. “If ever there was by any peo­ple a fin­er dis­play of char­ac­ter and courage under such cir­cum­stances, I sim­ply haven’t seen it. And so, thank you, as well, for the pow­er of your exam­ple to the world.” 

Mullen praised the response of the Japan­ese Self-Defense Force for its skill and pro­fes­sion­al­ism in help­ing Japan­ese cit­i­zens fol­low­ing the dis­as­ter. “For our part, the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary was proud to sup­port your troops and to labor side by side [and] day and night with them — on the ground, in the air, and at sea — as we joint­ly bat­tled the ele­ments and the unspeak­able destruction.” 

The col­lab­o­ra­tion of the Japan­ese and U.S. forces fol­low­ing the earth­quake is a tes­ta­ment to the coun­tries’ strong rela­tion­ship, the admi­ral said, adding that his trip to Japan was meant to under­score the U.S. com­mit­ment to a part­ner­ship with Japan. 

“We know you, and you know us,” he said. “And, togeth­er, we have served not only the defense of Japan, but the cause of peace and sta­bil­i­ty in the Asia-Pacif­ic region. And it is the strength of that friend­ship I am here to reaf­firm. In every meet­ing I will attend, in every dis­cus­sion I will have, I will con­vey my government’s com­mit­ment — and that of my mil­i­tary — to expand­ing and improv­ing our bilat­er­al relations.” 

Not­ing that the Unit­ed States is a Pacif­ic pow­er, Mullen said it will seize every oppor­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote peace in the region. “Of course, should your women’s soc­cer team defeat ours in the World Cup this week­end, we may have to seri­ous­ly rethink our posi­tion,” he joked about the much-antic­i­pat­ed July 17 match-up. 

As part of strength­en­ing their alliance, Mullen said, Japan and the Unit­ed States also must reach out to expand mul­ti­lat­er­al rela­tions in the region. “No sin­gle nation can address all of today’s chal­lenges alone,” he said. “There is greater strength to be found in the diver­si­ty of tal­ent pre­sent­ed through plur­al ini­tia­tives and cooperation.” 

Japan’s recent efforts to improve bilat­er­al rela­tions with South Korea and Aus­tralia are a good exam­ple, Mullen said, in address­ing com­mon chal­lenges rang­ing from pira­cy in the Straits of Malac­ca to weapons pro­lif­er­a­tion and dis­as­ter response. 

Mullen said he would like to see those bilat­er­al rela­tion­ships extend to more con­ven­tion­al and defen­sive capa­bil­i­ties with South Korea and oth­ers. “The Unit­ed States has endur­ing inter­ests in the Pacif­ic, and we have endur­ing secu­ri­ty com­mit­ments we plan to broad­en and deep­en,” he said. “But so, too, would we like to see oth­ers broad­en and deep­en their coop­er­a­tion with their neighbors. 

“Rela­tion­ships mat­ter,” he con­tin­ued. “Where they are strong, there is trust and trans­paren­cy and a bet­ter chance for sta­bil­i­ty. Where they are weak or nonex­is­tent, there is, at best, sus­pi­cion and, at worst, the very real risk of miscalculation.” 

Mullen began the Asia trip at the invi­ta­tion of his Chi­nese coun­ter­part, Gen. Chen Bingde, who vis­it­ed the Pen­ta­gon in May. The admi­ral said the meet­ings he took part in over sev­er­al days in Chi­na were “pro­duc­tive and gen­er­al­ly pos­i­tive with respect to mov­ing us clos­er to some sort of rela­tion­ship.” He not­ed that the U.S. and Chi­nese mil­i­taries have not had “a sus­tained, reli­able relationship.” 

The chair­man said he made clear in Bei­jing that “there’s just too much at stake for us not to have an under­stand­ing of one anoth­er.” But, he acknowl­edged, U.S. mil­i­tary lead­ers and those with the People’s Lib­er­a­tion Army have a long way to go. 

“I am under no illu­sion that we have cement­ed any­thing like a part­ner­ship with the PLA,” he said. “Maybe we nev­er will. Dif­fer­ences between us are still stark. But the work of estab­lish­ing a rela­tion­ship has to start some­where. The exchanges and exer­cis­es we agreed to are good first steps, as are dis­cus­sions we will soon have about the Mil­i­tary Mar­itime Con­sul­ta­tive Agreement.” 

U.S. allies should not be con­cerned about the country’s efforts at a mil­i­tary rela­tion­ship with Chi­na, Mullen said. 

“Rela­tion­ships are not zero-sum affairs, replete with win­ners and losers,” he explained. “One rela­tion­ship does not come at the expense of anoth­er. Nor does a rela­tion­ship in the nascent stages of devel­op­ment unseat or make unsteady those that have been tem­pered over time and tri­al. Quite the con­trary. A con­struc­tive [U.S.-China mil­i­tary] rela­tion­ship is even­tu­al­ly good for every­one with whom we are close.” 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →