US and Ally To Deploy More Forces to Strategic Islands Near China [Video]

The defense chiefs of the United States and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to expand military presence in a chain of strategic Western Pacific Ocean islands located near China.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held his first telephone talks with Gen Nakatani, the newly appointed defense minister of Japan, on Tuesday. They reiterated the commitment to modernize the U.S.-Japan alliance’s command and control and expand bilateral presence in Japan’s Southwest Islands that lie between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea.

The islands, or the Ryukyu Islands, are part of a defense concept known as the first island chain, which extends southward from Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines. It attempted to leverage allied or friendly territories to contain China in the wider Western Pacific Ocean.

However, the Chinese military has accomplished a breakthrough of the first island chain, where its fast-growing naval fleet operates in the wider Pacific Ocean frequently. China has …