US, Japan to Build Missile Facility    10/30 06:22

   

   CEBU, Philippines (AP) -- The United States and Japan have agreed to 
establish a Japanese facility for the joint production of advanced medium-range 
air-to-air missiles, the Japanese defense chief said.

   It is the latest move by the allies, which have repeatedly expressed alarm 
over China's growing assertiveness in Asia.

   Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi made the announcement in a news 
conference Wednesday night in the central Philippine province of Cebu, where he 
met U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the sidelines of an annual meeting 
of Southeast Asian defense chiefs and their major Asian and Western 
counterparts.

   Koizumi renews concern over China's naval activity 

   Koizumi raised concern Thursday about China's increasing naval activity in 
southwestern Japan. He said that three Chinese destroyers and a coast guard 
ship together crossed the Osumi Strait south of the southern main island of 
Kyushu and headed east to the Pacific Ocean this week. It was the first such 
fleet configuration his ministry has spotted, he said.

   Koizumi said he cited the incident as "an example illustrating the 
challenging security environment in the region" in his remark at a session 
Thursday. His ministry will keep watching the Chinese activity with high level 
of interest, he said. Japan has been accelerating military buildup in 
southwestern Japan to deter China.

   The annual meetings aim to avert a major regional conflict and strengthen 
defense cooperation. On the sidelines of the meetings, however, the U.S. and 
China and their allies have often traded criticisms.

   Japan, US to bolster joint missile production capacity 

   The missiles that will be produced as part of a joint effort called 
"Operation Supercharge" are essential for the F-35 fighter jets, Koizumi said. 
The two sides agreed to build a final assembly and inspection plant for the 
Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM, in Japan, he said. The 
U.S.-made F-35s are one of the world's most advanced aircraft and are also used 
by the Japanese military.

   During his brief meeting with Hegseth in Cebu, Koizumi said he "shared a 
sense of crisis ... regarding the increasingly severe regional situation and we 
agreed to strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. 
alliance with greater speed and intensity than ever before."

   "We reaffirmed the importance of a free and open international order based 
on the rule of law, which rejects any attempts to unilaterally alter the status 
quo through the use of force, coercion or other means," Koizumi said.

   Hegseth reassures US engagement in the region 

   Hegseth renewed the Trump administration's repeated assurances of commitment 
to help deter aggression in the region in a separate meeting on Wednesday with 
ASEAN defense ministers, who were led by the host, Philippine Defense Secretary 
Gilberto Teodoro Jr. Like Koizumi, Hegseth did not mention China by name in 
expressing his security concerns in the region.

   "The approach we're taking, we describe as strong, quiet and clear," Hegseth 
told the ASEAN defense chiefs. "Strong enough to deter coercion and aggression, 
quiet enough to avoid needless escalation or public theatrics to let our 
actions speak for themselves."

   His message is "clear enough that our friends, our partners and potential 
adversaries understand precisely where the United States stands and that we 
will defend our interests and the interests of our allies and partners," 
Hegseth said.

   Hegseth has assured the Philippines, the oldest treaty ally of Washington in 
Asia, that the Trump administration will build a robust deterrence against 
China's increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea. 
Beijing claims the busy waterway, a key global trade route, virtually in its 
entirety.

   Australia shows commitment to defend the rule of law in the Pacific 

   Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said his country's forces, along 
with allies like the U.S., will press on with efforts to defend the rule of law 
despite China's increasing assertiveness, including in the South China Sea. 
Australia protested last year after a Chinese J-16 fighter aircraft released 
flares and passed within 30 meters (100 feet) of an Australian P-8 Poseidon 
surveillance jet over the disputed waters.

   "That doesn't deter us from doing what we need to do and that's essentially 
asserting the rules-based order here in the end of the Pacific," Marles told 
The Associated Press in Cebu on Wednesday. "Freedom of navigation on the high 
seas is profoundly important for Australia."

   The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, all ASEAN member states, 
along with Taiwan, also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea. 
Confrontations have particularly escalated between Chinese and Philippine coast 
guard and navy vessels in disputed shoals and outlying waters.

   Washington has warned that it's obligated to defend the Philippines if 
Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in 
the South China Sea.

   Beijing and Tokyo have a separate dispute over tiny Japanese-controlled 
islands in the East China Sea, with both sides often accusing the other of 
infringing on their maritime territory.