The two Asian countries were chosen as the destinations for the first overseas visit by a Trump Cabinet member and US Defense Secretary James Mattis gave Seoul and Tokyo exactly what they were looking for.
Both countries had been stunned by comments made by President Donald Trump on the campaign trail that suggested that they should develop their own nuclear weapons to defend themselves and pay more toward the cost of troops stationed in the region.
Mattis laid all those concerns to rest in his four-day visit, promising an « effective and overwhelming » response should provocative neighbor North Korea launch a nuclear attack and said US defense commitments in East Asia were « ironclad. »
He even told his Japanese counterpart Tomomi Inada that her country had « been a model of cost sharing. »
« Mattis said all the right things. His goal was clearly to reassure, » said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Mattis: US will defend Japanese islands claimed by China
Disputed islands
There’ll be fewer smiles in China and North Korea.
When Mattis reaffirmed Washington’s treaty commitment to defending Japan, he emphasized that this would include a disputed island chain claimed by both Japan, which calls it the Senkakus, and China, which calls them the Diaoyu islands.
His comments quickly drew a rebuke from China, which accused the US of injecting instability into the region.
« We urge the US side to adopt a responsible attitude and stop making wrong remarks on the issue of the sovereignty of Diaoyu Islands.
