The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom are considering working with Japan on the joint development of advanced defense technologies through a trilateral security partnership as part of efforts to counter China's military expansion, the three countries said on Monday. The Minister of Defense announced.
A joint statement issued by the defense secretaries of the three countries said: “Recognizing Japan's strengths and our close bilateral defense partnership with all three countries, we are considering cooperation with Japan on the AUKUS Pillar 2 Advanced Capabilities Project. “I am doing so,” he said.
The second pillar of the tripartite partnership, known as AUKUS, focuses on cooperation in a range of new technologies, including hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
The combined photo shows (from left) US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (Getty/Kyodo News), British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, and Australian Defense Minister Richard Mars. (Joint)
The partnership, established in 2021, has no plans to seek cooperation with Japan or other countries on the first pillar, which aims to deliver a nuclear-powered submarine to Canberra, but some officials say there are plans for another. We are promoting the inclusion of Tokyo in the five pillar project.
Ahead of Wednesday's official meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, senior Biden administration officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, said: stated. He insisted that Tokyo participate.
Officials preparing for the summit say Biden and Kishida are hopeful that the bilateral alliance will include AUKUS, among a number of other agreements expected to be announced that demonstrate strong U.S.-Japan relations. The company plans to confirm that it will continue to strengthen its network relationships with partners who share the same interests.
It is therefore almost certain that Mr. Biden and Mr. Kishida will discuss the possibility of Japan's involvement in the second pillar of the trilateral partnership, with countries such as Canada and New Zealand also expressing interest in such cooperation. It is.
Nevertheless, AUKUS and Japanese officials indicated that there is still a long way to go before Japan's possible participation. Some AUKUS officials are concerned about Japan's ability to protect the group's sensitive information.
Some Japanese government officials have expressed concerns about expanding cooperation on cutting-edge technology too quickly with countries other than the United States, Tokyo's only security treaty ally.
In a joint statement, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom said they believed that by expanding cooperation on Pillar 2 with like-minded partners, they could strengthen their pursuit of maintaining stability in the region.
But at the same time, “when identifying opportunities for cooperation, we consider factors such as technological innovation, financing, industry strength, the ability to adequately protect sensitive data and information, and the impact on promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.” “We will take this into consideration,” he said. ”
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