US envoy calls for Japan’s help to quickly replenish US missile inventory, repair warships

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Japan says the United States needs Japan’s help to quickly replenish missile inventory and repair warships as conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue and Washington seeks to keep its deterrence credible in the Indo-Pacific. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel says it is clear that the U.S. military industrial base cannot meet all its strategic challenges. He spoke as Japan and the U.S. held their first talks to accelerate military industrial cooperation. It came two months after an April agreement between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden. The ambassador said that “the goal here is not more meetings. The goal is production.”