The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, agreed with Japanese officials Tuesday that three-way cooperation with South Korea is key to regional security and that an intelligence sharing pact between Tokyo and Seoul should not be scrapped.
Experts pinpointed two critical issues that could have motivated Trump’s remarks: upcoming trade negotiations with Japan, and the expiration of an agreement dictating how much funding Japan contributes to host U.S. troops.