WASHINGTON, April 11. /TASS/. Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, which make up the AUKUS military alliance, are looking into the possibility of cooperating with Japan on the issue of defense technologies, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a joint statement.
The document, released after their meeting in Washington, says Australia, the US and Japan plan to cooperate in creating a networked air defense architecture. Moreover, based on Tokyo’s "close bilateral defense partnerships with the AUKUS countries," the three members "are considering cooperation with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects."
Also, the statement says the United States, South Korea and Japan made progress on holding joint annual exercises. Also, Biden and Kishida welcomed the decision to hold regular trilateral US-UK-Japanese exercises starting from 2025.
The AUKUS is a security partnership between the governments of Australia, the US and the US, established in September, 2021, for implementation of a number of defense initiatives in two areas, called components. The first one implies the provision of a fleet of nuclear attack submarines to Australia. The second one is connected with the joint development of military equipment in eight areas, which include submarine systems, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, cybersecurity and electronic warfare, hypersonic aircraft and interception means, as well as innovations and technologies of exchange of information.