By Ankit Panda
The United States and Japan will delay the revision of their defense guidelines until the middle of next year.
The governments of Japan and the United States have decided to postpone the revision of their defense cooperation guidelines under their 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. Tokyo and Washington have been negotiating a series of updates to the terms of their defense cooperation after the Japanese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moved to make several changes to Japan’s defense posture, including passing a resolution reinterpreting a long-standing constitutional ban on collective self-defense. According to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, the guidelines will be compiled over the first half of next year. The original deadline for revising the deadline was the end of this year.
The two countries did release an interim report, giving us a useful preview of what the updated guidelines will contain. The report (available here [PDF]) noted that the new guidelines will likely emphasize:
- seamless, robust, flexible, and effective bilateral responses;
- the global nature of the Japan-U.S. Alliance;
- cooperation with other regional partners;
- synergy across the two governments’ national security policies; and
- a whole-of-government Alliance approach.
Read the full story at The Diplomat