Array
The defense ministers of the United States, Australia and Japan agreed Saturday to boost military cooperation in the face of China’s growing ambitions “to shape the world around it”.
Washington is pressing a diplomatic offensive to counter Chinese influence across the Asia-Pacific.
“We are deeply concerned by China’s increasingly aggressive and bullying behavior in the Taiwan Strait, and elsewhere in the region,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said as he welcomed his counterparts from Australia and Japan to the US military headquarters for the Pacific region in Hawaii.
“Our interest lies in the upholding of the global rules-based order. But we see that order under pressure in the Indo-Pacific as well, as China is seeking to shape the world around it in a way that we’ve not seen before,” said Richard Marles, the Australian defense minister.
