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Biden, Kishida to announce ramped-up U.S.-Japan military partnership
President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are expected this week to announce a ramped-up level of defense and intelligence cooperation between the two countries, senior administration officials said.
The officials said details of the enhanced military partnership will be worked out by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Japanese counterpart in the next several months. However, the U.S. expects Japan to step up and play a significant role in producing more military and defense equipment.
With Philippines President Bongbong Marcos joining the two leaders for a three-way summit on Thursday, another clear goal of this week’s meetings between the U.S. and the Asian nations has become clear: underscoring global coordination in the face of increased hostility in the region from China.
China in recent weeks has had some maritime run-ins in the South China Sea with the Philippines, with the Chinese Coast Guard directing water guns at Filipino vessels.
This hostility will not deter the Philippines, U.S. officials said. “The country that is isolated on Thursday is China, not the Philippines,” one official said about the three-way Washington summit this week.
Regarding greater intelligence cooperation, U.S. officials noted the Japanese have “taken substantial steps” to protect the most sensitive intelligence information, although the official said there’s “still more work to do” before Japan reaches the required level of information security to potentially join the Five Eyes intelligence network. Joining that intelligence sharing agreement — which consists of the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — is viewed by Japanese security experts as a means of adding more protection against China’s provocations.
Officials shared one other way to bring Japan into more defense and intelligence sharing: the country will start consultations to potentially join a Biden-era security pact between Australia, the U.K., and the U.S.
These high-level objectives are part of a 70-point plan that the U.S. and Japan are expected announce this week.
Other promises are more lighthearted. Japan has offered saplings to replace hundreds of popular cherry blossom trees in the Tidal Basin area, and the Japanese prime minister is expected to start some of these plantings at a ceremony on the National Mall on Wednesday.
A “major” lunar agreement, increased university research, and a new scholarship for U.S. high school students to enter into exchange study programs with Japanese schools will also be announced, the officials said.
Overall, the U.S. officials also said the U.S.-Japan alliance is proof Mr. Biden’s theory of increased engagement with Indo-Pacific nations would foster more cooperation throughout the world. One senior administration official said previously Japan was only worried about its “perimeter,” but in recent years, the country has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and has engaged more in the Middle East.
“Anywhere American purpose is being put to the test, Japan is by our side,” one U.S. official said.
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
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