​​​​​ISTANBUL

Japan’s foreign minister said Tuesday that the country’s defense buildup should be Tokyo’s “own initiative,” in the wake of a new US national security strategy document.

“The security environment surround(ing) Japan is perhaps the most challenging and severe and complex in the post-war history … I have stressed in the past … buildup of defense capability should be conducted by Japan's initiative based on the basic attitude that a nation should defend itself,” Motegi Toshimitsu Motegi told a news conference in Tokyo.

His remarks came in response to the new US national security strategy document, which outlined the Trump administration’s priorities in foreign and security policies, and sought increased defense spending by Washington’s allies, including Tokyo.

“Given President Trump’s insistence on increased burden-sharing from Japan and South Korea, we must urge these countries to increase defense spending, with a focus on the capabilities –including new capabilities – necessary to deter adversaries and protect the First Island Chain,” according to the document released last week, referring to the chain of islands including Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

The top Japanese diplomat said on the increase of Tokyo’s defense budget: “Neither monetary amount or percentage of GDP and other numbers should not be treated as a given.”

“So, in order for Japan to fundamentally strengthen its defense capabilities with a sense of ownership, it is to front-load to this fiscal year measures to achieve 2% defense spending as a percentage of GDP, which is debated in its national security strategy,” he added.

Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged to boost defense spending to 2% of the country’s GDP by next year, during her first policy speech on Oct. 24.

Japan, one of the oldest allies of the US in the wider Asia-Pacific region, currently hosts more than 50,000 US troops as well as multiple military bases and weaponry.