Abe becomes 1st Japan leader to board U.S. aircraft carrier

TOKYO. KAZINFORM - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese leader in office to board a U.S. aircraft carrier Sunday when he boarded the nuclear-powered Ronald Reagan that arrived earlier this month at its new home port in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, Kyodo reports.

The move is apparently aimed at showing off the two countries' enhanced alliance following Japan's recent enactment of new security laws that for the first time since World War II will allow its troops to come to the aid of allies under armed attack. As he was taken around the flattop by Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander of U.S. 3rd Fleet, and other U.S. naval officials, Abe welcomed its deployment as a "symbol of the ties between Japan and the United States, which engaged in Operation Tomodachi ('friend') after the Great East Japan Earthquake." He also revealed that he had the Ronald Reagan in mind when he called bilateral ties an "alliance of hope" in his speech in April at the U.S. Congress. The Ronald Reagan, which arrived Oct. 1 at Yokosuka Naval Base, replacing the George Washington that left in May, was engaged in the U.S. military's Operation Tomodachi relief mission after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. Abe went aboard accompanied by Taro Aso, who is both deputy prime minister and finance minister, and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani. Prior to the event, Abe also said at a fleet review of the Maritime Self-Defense Force in Sagami Bay off Tokyo's neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture that the U.S. flattop "is a 'tomodachi' who rushed to the rescue at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake." "By highly hoisting the flag of proactive pacifism, I'm determined to contribute more than ever to world peace and prosperity," Abe said, while urging Japanese troops to "further fulfill your duties in order to hand over to children a warless and peaceful Japan." During the review, which displayed 36 Self-Defense Force warships and 37 aircraft, a U.S. Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft also made a flight. Naval vessels from Australia, France, India and South Korea also joined the event.