WASHINGTON -- Japan and the U.S. this week agreed to increase cooperation on defense, aiming to bolster what the Biden administration calls "integrated deterrence" with China's growing military presence in the Indo-Pacific region and a potential Taiwan contingency in mind.
For the Pentagon to discuss a Taiwan contingency with counterparts would have been unthinkable in 2010, but now the stage is set for that to be a real possibility, said Christopher Johnstone, a senior adviser and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.