Greeting

I visited Hawaii from July 13 through 16 to participate in the Japan-United States-Australia trilateral senior level seminar.
This seminar provides an opportunity for top-level officers of the four land forces from the three countries in the Asia-Pacific region to discuss strategies to further strengthen cooperative relations between the land forces, based on the advancement of close trilateral relations at the government level.
This year, the seminar was hosted by Lieutenant General Terry G. Robling Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, along with the participation of Lieutenant General Vincent K. Brooks, Commanding General, U.S. Army Pacific and Major General Peter Warwick Gus Gilmore, Deputy Chief of Australian Army. We engaged in active discussion on the current situation in the Asia–Pacific region and cooperative activities in the peace time such as provision of capability building support and trilateral exercises. Through such discussion, we made efforts to materialize some collaboration.
In addition, these four land forces from three countries, along with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, participated in inspection tour held during the RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific Exercise), which took place concurrently with the senior level seminar in Hawaii. We gained a better understanding of the role of land forces in the maritime environment through the tour as flying by a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 and landing on the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu. We also learned about various actions taking place on that ship.