During a telephone conversation between senior defense officials last week, Washington reiterated its position that the Senkaku Islands fall under the United States' scope of alliance commitments to Japan.
This came just a few days after President-elect Joe Biden also reaffirmed this pledge in his first telephone call with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Reports of this have rekindled a long-standing debate on the utility of such statements of commitment.
The Senkaku Islands are the source of territorial disputes between Japan, China, and Taiwan. The five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea are themselves unremarkable, but the maritime area around them is important both for natural resources and access between mainland Asia and the broader Pacific Ocean.