Japanese Minister of Defense Hamada Yasukazu, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, and Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles convened a Trilateral Defense Ministerial Meeting in Hawaii on October 1, 2022.
The Ministers welcomed that they had affirmed the strategic alignment among the three countries and concurred to promote concrete and practical initiatives to ensure the security of the Indo-Pacific region at the 10th Trilateral Defense Ministerial Meeting in Singapore in June this year. The Ministers concurred that they would continue to advance trilateral cooperation. The Ministers reaffirmed that they would expand and strengthen trilateral training and activities in particular as well as promote defense equipment and technology cooperation and effectively exchange information with the view to enhance trilateral interoperability.
The Ministers exchanged views on the regional situation and reaffirmed that the three countries would continue to closely work together amid Russia’s aggression against Ukraine which shakes the very foundation of the international order. In that, the Ministers shared concerns about the situation in the East and South China Seas and reaffirmed that they oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or any unilateral actions that seek to increase tensions in the area. Also, the Ministers strongly condemned China’s ballistic missile launch early August, including those that Japan reported as landing at the waters near Japan, including EEZ. The Ministers reiterated the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and concurred to encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.
The Ministers have affirmed that the three countries would align the strategies of the three countries to continue to closely work together and remain committed to the region in order to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific and maintain and strengthen the rule-based international order.