(Provisional translation by an external company for reference purpose only)
I would like to speak about Japan-Australia Defence Ministerial Meeting. Today, commencing at 1:30 p.m., I held the Japan-Australia Defence Ministerial Meeting with the Hon Richard Marles MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence of Australia, for approximately 20 minutes. It was held in the form of telephone conference. At the outset, Minister Marles congratulated me for my appointment and I expressed my appreciation. When I twice held this post in the past, I held a Japan-Australia Defence Ministerial Meeting in person with Minister for Defence Hill in August 2002 and Minister for Defence Payne in November 2015. In addition, I held the 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations and U.S.-Japan-Australia Trilateral Defense Ministers’ Meeting and worked to deepen Japan-Australia defense cooperation. For example, while I was previously Minister of Defense in 2015, the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) began participating in Talisman Sabre, a multilateral exercise hosted by Australia and the U.S. Last year, the Ground Self-Defense Force conducted a live fire demonstration of a Type-12 surface-to-ship missile (SSM) and Type-03 medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) in Australia for the first time. I welcomed such deepening of trainings. We affirmed the two countries have expanded defense cooperation in every area including operational cooperation and joint trainings and defense equipment and technology cooperation. We also shared our views on continuing to deepen each initiative such as enhancing the interoperability between the SDF and Australian Defence Force, based on the Japan-Australia 2+2 held last month. It was very meaningful to exchange views with Minister Marles on Japan-Australia defense cooperation soon after my assuming office. Japan and Australia, which completely share values and strategic objectives, are the central pillar of the coordination among like-minded countries. I will seek to maintain communication with Australia to hold talks in person with Minister Marles as early as possible, with a view to further deepening Japan-Australia defense cooperation. I would also like to add that, during the teleconference, we called each other by our first names, Richard and Gen, and formed a friendship.