IRIA News

Defense chiefs from the United States, Australia, Japan, and the Philippines agreed to deepen military cooperation as they gathered Thursday in Hawaii for their second joint summit. The allies convened to address their concerns regarding China’s increasing military assertiveness in the Pacific region.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met his counterparts Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles, Japanese Minister of Defense Kihara Minoru, and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro for a series of bilateral and joint talks at Camp H. M. Smith, a U.S. Marine Corps base in Hawaii, on May 2, 2024.

In a thirteenth trilateral meeting between the U.S., Japanese, and Australian defense chiefs, “The Ministers reiterated their strong opposition to any attempts by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the South and East China Seas,” according to the Pentagon statement.

They also emphasized the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and called for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. 

According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense, “the ministers reaffirmed their enduring commitment to a peaceful, secure, and prosperous Southeast Asia, where sovereignty is respected, international law is followed, and nations can make decisions free from coercion. They reaffirmed their commitment to ASEAN centrality and unity as well as ASEAN-led regional architecture.

The Philippines is the newest member of the emerging alliance, which aims to counter China’s increasing military might in the region. “They recognized the importance of strengthening cooperation with Southeast Asian partners including the Philippines and welcomed the second meeting of Australia, Japan, Philippines, and United States Defense Ministers and Secretary also being held in Hawaii,” the statement added.

The meeting between the four defense chiefs comes following the four nations’ inaugural joint naval exercises in the South China Sea last month. The South China Sea region is a crucial shipping route plagued by enduring territorial disputes between Beijing and several Southeast Asian nations, prompting concerns with China’s recent aggressive actions in the region.

Meanwhile, Beijing alleges that the bolstering of U.S. alliances in Asia is geared towards containing China, and poses a threat to regional stability.

Joint exercises and activities

The defense ministers of the United States, Japan and Australia agreed to enhance defense cooperation across the following areas:

• Conduct trilateral F-35 Joint Strike Fighter training in the three countries in the next two years, including Exercise Cope North 2025 in the United States, Exercise Bushido Guardian 2025 in Japan and Exercise Pitch Black 2026 in Australia.
• Increase the frequency and complexity of high-end trilateral exercises in northern Australia.
• Increase opportunities and enhance the complexity of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) cooperation.
• Accelerate and deepen trilateral information-sharing cooperation.

Following the meeting with his regional allies, the U.S. Defense Secretary told reporters during a press briefing that the joint exercises enhanced the collaborative capacity of the nations, fostered camaraderie among their military forces, and emphasized their mutual dedication to upholding international law within the waterway.

#AusNavy 816 Squadron, Flight 607 conducted exercises and flying serials with @USNavy Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 37 ‘Easyriders” around the islands of Hawaii during #HMASStuart‘s Pacific Deployment. 🚁🇦🇺🇺🇸 #YourADF pic.twitter.com/grN2enFeyq

— Defence Australia (@DefenceAust) May 3, 2024

The defense chiefs of the U.S., Japan, Australia, and the Philippines said they will hold more maritime military drills as they look to boost cooperation as part of efforts to ensure a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the defense chiefs talked about increasing the tempo of their defense exercises.

“Today, the meetings that we have held represent a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order,” Marles said at the joint news conference with his counterparts.

“We stand by together with all the nations who share a common vision of the free and open Indo-Pacific, which is the foundation of the peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region,” Japanese Minister of Defense Kihara Minoru said during a post-meeting joint press briefing.

He announced that Tokyo and Manila are making a Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) which would “further activate and vitalize the bilateral joint exercise and training of the Philippines and Japan military units and expected to contribute to the reinforcement cooperation — of the cooperation among the four nations.”

US in the South China Sea

The U.S. has decades-old military ties with all three nations individually, however, the Biden administration has been trying to bring all its Pacific allies under one umbrella to counter China’s rise in the region. Defense chiefs from the four nations held their first meeting in Singapore last year.

While the U.S. does not have any active territorial claims in the South China Sea, it has conducted Navy operations and deployed fighter jets under, what it calls, the freedom of navigation. The U.S.’s military efforts in the South China Sea are mainly focused on contesting China’s claims over the entire area and emphasizing that freedom of navigation and overflight in these waters serve America’s national interest.

Apart from China and the Philippines, the two most active forces in the South China Sea, other Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei also assert overlapping claims in the resource-abundant sea. Beijing has rejected recognition of a 2016 international arbitration verdict, which nullified its broad claims based on historical assertions.