The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday marked its 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, with the mayor and dwindling survivors urging world leaders including their own to do more for a nuclear weapons ban.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Sunday to bolster his country’s role under its security pact with the U.S. in “outer space and cyberspace,” as the allies marked the 60th anniversary of a treaty that has been the basis for their postwar defense alliance.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, agreed with Japanese officials Tuesday that three-way cooperation with South Korea is key to regional security and that an intelligence sharing pact between Tokyo and Seoul should not be scrapped.
Experts pinpointed two critical issues that could have motivated Trump’s remarks: upcoming trade negotiations with Japan, and the expiration of an agreement dictating how much funding Japan contributes to host U.S. troops.