The northern Australian city of Darwin is set to host a significant three-way defense meeting tomorrow where Richard Marles‚ Gen Nakatani and Lloyd Austin will gather to discuss military partnerships
The defense leaders plan to cover several key areas of cooperation:
- Military training programs
- Joint operations planning
- Tech-sharing initiatives
- Defense manufacturing collaboration
This get-together (which marks their 14th trilateral meeting) comes about 5 months after their last talk in Singapore; where they focused on East China Sea stability issues
The previous gathering highlighted concerns about maritime activities after Japanese authorities spotted foreign vessels with cannon-like equipment near disputed islands - which Japan calls Senkaku while China refers them as Diaoyu
The Darwin meeting aims to strengthen ties between these Indo-Pacific allies and includes one-on-one discussions between each country: setting up a framework for deeper military coordination in the region