WASHINGTON: The United States is reluctant to discuss new Japanese Prime Minister ISHIBA Shigeru’s security proposals, including revising the bilateral status of forces agreement and creating an Asian version of NATO, US administration officials said.

In a commentary article contributed the Hudson Institute, a US think tank, last month, Ishiba said the Asian version of NATO must “consider America’s sharing of nuclear weapons or the introduction of nuclear weapons into the region.”

He also proposed that the status of forces agreement be revised to allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to be stationed in the US territory of Guam so that the two countries can become equal partners.

However, a US official said, “We are not interested or willing to renegotiate SOFA, and hosting SDF forces in Guam seems unlikely.” The official also said that the Asian NATO concept is a “nonstarter.”

Nicholas Szechenyi, vice president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US think tank, said, “The rapidly deteriorating security environment in Asia favors more security cooperation with the United States and other partners, and Ishiba will not depart from the strategic trajectory his predecessors put forth.”

It is important for the SDF and US forces to boost “joint exercises and bilateral presence along the Nansei island chain” in the East China Sea, Szechenyi said.

Meanwhile, the United States welcomes Ishiba’s appointments of IWAYA Takeshi and Gen Nakatani as foreign minister and defense minister, respectively.

Iwaya and Nakatani are “experienced leaders who have visited Washington frequently and are familiar with the trend lines in US-Japan relations,” a person familiar with bilateral relations said.

JIJI Press