MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The US-Japanese agreement to strengthen security alliance could be considered as a move against China, positioning Beijing as their enemy, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua said Friday.
"It sounds as if Japan and the United States are purposely taking China as their enemy and saying 'Let's join hands and go at China," Cheng was quoted as saying by the Kyodo news agency.
Cheng described the decision taken by Tokyo and Washington as "clearly a Cold War mindset," stressing that boosting alliance contradicted Japan's pledges to improve relations with China.
"Frankly speaking, I am dissatisfied with what the Japanese side has been doing since January," the Chinese ambassador added.
In early February, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a joint statement that Washington would strengthen its presence in the region, while Japan would assume larger roles and responsibilities in the alliance.
Tokyo and Washington have close ties in the sphere of military and technical cooperation. The United States have a military contingent of about 54,000 servicemen deployed in the Asian country, within the framework of the US-Japan security treaty signed in 1951. The majority of US troops in Japan is deployed in the western Japanese prefecture of Okinawa.
