Japan, US, Australia, Philippines agree on rules-based Indo-Pacific

HONOLULU (Kyodo) -- The defense ministers from Japan, the United States, Australia and the Philippines on Thursday pledged to maintain the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region, where concerns are growing over China's increasing assertiveness.

They told a joint press conference after a meeting in Hawaii that they also shared an understanding of the importance of the four nations' coordinated activities, including joint naval drills in the South China Sea, to enhance global peace and stability.

They agreed to continue their forces' joint exercises in the South China Sea, according to Japan's Defense Ministry.

"We've gathered here because we share a vision for peace, stability and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara stressed that it is "an urgent issue" for the four countries to work together with other like-minded states to that end.

The talks in Honolulu came as Washington and the three U.S. allies have been stepping up bilateral and multilateral security collaboration in recent years in an apparent show of unity against China's intensifying military activities in regional waters.

Last month, the four nations conducted their first full-scale joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, dubbed "the Maritime Cooperative Activity," to demonstrate the "collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific."

Austin said training of that type serves to "build bonds among our forces" and "underscore our shared commitment to international law in the South China Sea," adding that the countries are "looking to conduct more maritime exercises and activities."

In a thinly veiled reference to China, Kihara said the four ministers "stand united to strongly oppose any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo of the South China Sea by force or any activity to heighten the tension in the region."

Tokyo and Manila have faced territorial challenges from Beijing, which claims the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and almost all of the South China Sea.

Chinese coast guard ships used water cannons against Philippine vessels in March and April near disputed shoals in the resource-rich South China Sea, and have repeatedly entered Japanese territorial waters around the Senkakus, a group of Tokyo-administered uninhabited islets that Beijing claims and calls Diaoyu.

Without naming China, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the global rules-based order is "under intense pressure" and the latest gathering sends "a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order."

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro welcomed the strengthened quadrilateral ties aimed at not only protecting his nation's territorial integrity and sovereignty but also upholding "principles of international law which guide the global order in the proper way that nations should live amongst each other."

It is the second defense ministerial gathering for the four Pacific Rim countries. In June last year, their defense chiefs held their first-ever quadrilateral meeting in Singapore on the fringes of the annual Asia Security Conference, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

On Thursday, Kihara also met bilaterally with Austin and Marles, respectively, and the three held trilateral talks.