US, Australia and Japan vow to work together against China

Name: Why mainland China is holding military drills in Taiwan Strait following US Speaker Pelosi’s trip
Uploaded: 2022-10-02T01:20:38.000Z
Duration: 7 min 7 s
Description: Why mainland China is holding military drills in Taiwan Strait following US Speaker Pelosi’s trip

The United States is pressing a diplomatic offensive to counter Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region

The defence ministers of the US, Australia and Japan agreed on Saturday to boost military cooperation in the face of China’s growing ambitions

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin. Photo: Reuters/File

Agencies

Published: 9:20am, 2 Oct 2022Updated: 12:45pm, 2 Oct 2022

The defence ministers of the United States, Australia and Japan agreed on Saturday to boost military cooperation in the face of China’s growing ambitions.

During their talks in Hawaii, the ministers also “strongly condemned” China’s ballistic missile launches across the Taiwan Strait in August after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, the Japanese defence Ministry said.

“We will continue to strengthen trilateral cooperation to contribute to the realisation of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.

“We are deeply concerned by China’s increasingly aggressive and bullying behaviour in the Taiwan Strait, and elsewhere in the region,” US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said as he welcomed his counterparts from Australia and Japan to the US military headquarters for the Pacific region.

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Why mainland China is holding military drills in Taiwan Strait following US Speaker Pelosi’s trip

“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 the Australian minister, Richard Marles.