“Anyone who tries to change the status quo by force should be forced to pay high costs,” Kono said.
Beijing’s efforts to transform obscure sandbars and reefs into a string of heavily fortified artificial islands stretching hundreds of miles across the South China Sea promote or promote international order, the defense minister said.
China has stationed rocket batteries and deployments of fighter jets and bombers on several of the newly created islands.
“That’s destabilizing,” he said. “A free and open maritime order in the South China Sea is as important as any other place and what happens there … will affect the international community.”
Kono is just the latest in a campaign by the United States and allied leaders to call on China over its actions in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, where it has asserted its sovereignty over almost its 1, 3 million square miles has shaken.
Last month, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper called on US allies and partners to step up pressure on Beijing, saying the Chinese Communist Party had “gross disregard for international promises” it had made in the South China Sea.
Esper said a united front with U.S. allies and partners was essential to stop China from intimidating other nations from its rights in the region.
Kono’s remarks Friday followed a speech by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday, when he told the Aspen Security Forum that Tokyo and Canberra are both “taking concrete action to support our Pacific and Southeast Asian friends and family.”
Morrison said the US and Australia share common values, and that the two nations “have their backs to each other”.
Kono also spoke on Friday about Japan’s strong mutual relationship with Washington, saying it was also vital to the threat posed by North Korea, especially after negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea’s nuclear missile program were aborted.
“They have missiles and they can have some nuclear capability,” Kono said. “We are not sure what KJU thinks. That it is more difficult to predict what NK will try to do, so we need to be alert 24/7,” he said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un through his initials.
The Japanese defense minister said his country would be within his rights to expand his weapons arsenal to include offensive weapons to curb all possible North Korean aggression, but he said Tokyo also has other options, and would step in. trade with Washington.
“There are two ways to restrain others. One is deterrence through denial. And there is deterrence through punishment, and that is what the US-Japan alliance will consider,” he said.
China had sent its ships more than 100 consecutive days in waters around the islands in a region that ended earlier this month, sparking fears of a possible skirmish between the two neighbors.
But Kono said Friday that Tokyo did not want to inflate the situation.
“I do not think there is anything we need to do right now,” he said.
“We are definitely not trying to escalate the situation. I do not think China is trying to escalate the situation at the moment.”
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