The new commander of US forces in Japan, Lieutenant General Stephen Jost, has pledged to work to further strengthen the bilateral alliance.
Jost received the flag for the US forces in Japan from outgoing commander Lieutenant General Ricky Rupp in a change-of-command ceremony at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Jost said he believes the alliance is “the cornerstone of regional peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.”
He said he will “continuously, deliberately and urgently work to make the US-Japan alliance ever stronger.”
The Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, and representatives of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces were also in attendance.
Paparo spoke about plans to reconstitute the US forces in Japan as a joint force headquarters for better coordination with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. The move coincides with a Japanese plan to set up a joint operations command to coordinate the SDF by the end of March next year.
Paparo said the reconstitution will be the most significant change to the US forces in Japan since their creation and “one of the strongest improvements to the alliance’s military cooperation and in the Indo-Pacific in 70 years.”