Defense Minister Minoru Kihara
15:42 JST, May 1, 2024
WASHINGTON – Japan, the United States and Australia are in the final stages of preparing to sign a document on an agreement to promote joint defense research and development during Thursday’s trilateral meeting of defense ministers in Hawaii, a senior US Defense Department official told The Washington Post. Yomiuri Shimbun and some other media Tuesday.
The official also said the command and control system of US forces in Japan will be re-evaluated, with the aim of completing the review by March 2025.
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles will be in Hawaii to attend the US Indo-Pacific Command’s Change of Command Ceremony. The three are expected to agree on a deal and sign an agreement before the ceremony.
The document will include agreements on equipment standardization and advanced information exchange on research, development and testing. The official said the deal would improve equipment interoperability and make cooperation more efficient and cost-effective.
In January, Japan agreed with Australia to jointly research autonomous underwater vehicles, while working with the United States to analyze technologies to counter hypersonic weapons being developed by China and Russia. The countries are conducting trilateral research into unmanned aerial vehicles linked to fighter jets. The upcoming agreement is expected to expand current bilateral cooperation efforts in advanced technologies to a trilateral framework.
The official also said the reevaluation of command and control structures between the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. forces in Japan is expected to be an agenda item at Thursday’s meeting of Japanese-U.S. defense ministers. The official said the US was intensively studying what would be the best way to organize US forces in Japan and what will be needed to equip them.
The official said the US side would expedite the reevaluation so that it can be accomplished in time for Japan’s establishment at the end of the 2024 fiscal year of the SDF Joint Operations Command, which will manage the integrated operations of its ground, naval and air forces would strengthen.
