Over four days last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin participated in two bilateral "two-plus-two" (foreign and defense ministerial) meetings in Japan and South Korea. Blinken noted the significance of the Tokyo trip as it was "the first Cabinet-level, in-person, overseas travel of the Biden-Harris administration.”
Alas, it was a truly historic event for those of us who worked on the alliance in Japan. People like me used to have an obsession with two-plus-twos but now feel like we are living in a different age. Back in the 1990s, Tokyo was never considered a first destination for overseas travel by new U.S. secretaries under new administrations.
The official title of the Japan-U.S. two-plus-two is the Japan-United States Security Consultative Committee (SCC) as stipulated in the 1960 Mutual Security Treaty. Originally, however, the SCC’s American members were the U.S. ambassador to Japan and the commander of U.S. Forces Japan, not the secretaries of state and defense.