BEIJING (Dispatches) - Beijing hopes that the North Atlantic Alliance and Japan will refrain from provocations in East Asia that might breed tensions in the region, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.
“We hope that the countries in question will not be inflating fears of a Chinese threat or provoking a regional confrontation,” she said, when asked by a TASS correspondent for a comment on a joint statement by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who expressed concern about growing military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing.
Mao said Japan’s actions in the field of military security had always attracted the attention of its Asian neighbors and the international community.
“Japan should learn history lessons, adhere to a peaceful development path and refrain from actions that might undermine mutual trust among the countries of the region and damage regional peace and stability,” she concluded.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in the Philippines on Wednesday for talks about deploying U.S. forces and weapons in more Philippine military camps to ramp up deterrence against China.
Austin flew from South Korea, where he said the U.S. would increase its deployment of advanced weapons such as fighter jets and bombers to the Korean Peninsula to bolster joint training with South Korean forces.
In the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia, Austin visited southern Zamboanga city and met Filipino generals and a small contingent of U.S. counterterrorism forces based in a local military camp, regional Philippine military commander Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said. The more than 100 U.S. military personnel have provided intelligence and combat advice for years to Filipino troops.