(Bloomberg) -- US President Joe Biden and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are expected to announce plans to restructure the US military command in Japan, the Financial Times reported, citing five people familiar with the matter.
The plan, which will strengthen operational planning and exercises between the two countries, will be unveiled when Biden hosts Kishida at the White House on April 10, the FT said. The actions would amount to the biggest upgrade to their security alliance since a mutual defence treaty was signed in 1960 and is intended as a response to the growing threat from China, according to the newspaper.
The Japanese military currently deals more with the US Indo-Pacific command in Hawaii rather than the US Forces Japan, and the government has long pushed for a more senior officer in the Asian nation.
One model the Biden administration is considering involves creating a new US military joint task force that would be attached to the US Pacific Fleet and whose commander would spend more time in Japan than at present, according to the FT. No decision has been made, and other models, including an upgrade to US Forces Japan, may be under consideration, the newspaper added.
The White House, Pentagon and Indo-Pacific command declined to comment to the FT, while the Japanese government also did not comment to the newspaper.
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