The foreign ministers of Australia, India, Japan and the United States met in Tokyo for talks that are expected to focus on maritime security and initiatives to build cyber defense, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The talks, attended by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, her Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa, India's top diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, followed security talks between Tokyo and Washington yesterday in which the allies singled out China as "the greatest strategic challenge" before the region.
"We all know that our region and our world are being reshaped. We all understand that we are facing the most conflictual circumstances in our region in decades," Wong said in his opening remarks at the start of the talks. "We all value the peace, stability and prosperity of the region and we all know that this is not a given, we all know that we cannot take it for granted," she stressed.
In his opening remarks, Kamikawa emphasized the need to build cyber security capabilities and provide maritime security training opportunities to protect and develop prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
The United States has announced that it is planning a major reorganization of its military command in Japan to deepen coordination with its ally's forces. It is one of several measures taken to address what the US and Japan have said is an "evolving security environment", noting the various threats posed by China, including its increasing maritime activities in the East and South China Sea.
"Now we have conflicts: Gaza, Ukraine, South Sudan, they get a lot of attention, which is understandable,” Blinken said at the start of his remarks to the group of four countries. "But even as we do what we need to do, what we need to do to try to end these conflicts... we have not lost sight and we are really resolutely focused on this region that we share." ;.
After leaving Tokyo, Blinken and Austin will hold security talks with another Asian ally - the Philippines, Reuters notes.