Japan backs close defense ties with India, South Korea in Indo-Pacific
Japan has said that it backed close security cooperation with South Korea and India in the Indo-Pacific, days after the Philippines' military chief said a US-backed security group wanted both nations to join to counter China in the region.
Japan's Ministry of Defense said in a statement to Reuters on Monday that it supported building a multi-layered network of alliances in general, and but declined to say whether it has given its consent or made any specific considerations on the expansion of the Squad group.
The Squad is an informal multilateral grouping made up of Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States, focused on defense cooperation, intelligence sharing, and joint military exercises and operations.
'It is important to build networks among allies and like-minded countries organically and in a multi-layered manner, as well as to expand such networks and strengthen deterrence, as Japan faces the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II,' Japan's Ministry of Defense said.
It added that the ministry 'believes that close cooperation among regional partners, including Australia, the Philippines, as well as the Republic of Korea and India is extremely important from the perspective of realizing a 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific', while the Japan-US Alliance remains at its core.'
General Romeo S. Brawner, military chief of the Philippines, said at a security forum in New Delhi last week that Squad nations were trying to include India and South Korea in the grouping to counter China. His remarks followed a series of escalating confrontations between Manila and Beijing over the past couple of years in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
India's defense ministry and South Korea's embassy in India did not respond to a request for comment.
Christopher Elms, the spokesperson of the US Embassy in India, told Reuters last week that, 'The United States will continue to work with all of our partners to continue to advance a more secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.'
Australia's defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
4 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
North Korea internet hit by a major outage, analyst says
North Korea's internet is experiencing a major outage on Saturday, said a UK-based researcher, adding that the cause may be internal rather than a cyberattack. North Korea's main news websites and its Foreign Ministry internet site were inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to checks by Reuters. 'A major outage is currently occurring on North Korea's internet — affecting all routes whether they come in via China or Russia,' said Junade Ali, a UK-based researcher who monitors the North Korean internet. North Korea's entire internet infrastructure is not showing up on systems that can monitor internet activities, he said. 'Hard to say if this is intentional or accidental — but seems like this is internal rather than an attack,' he said. Officials at South Korea's police cyber terror response center, which monitors North Korea's cyber activities, could not be reached for comment.
Asharq Al-Awsat
13 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
D-Day Veterans Return to Normandy to Mark 81st Anniversary of Landings
Veterans gathered Friday in Normandy to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings — a pivotal moment of World War II that eventually led to the collapse of Adolf Hitler's regime. Along the coastline and near the D-Day landing beaches, tens of thousands of onlookers attended the commemorations, which included parachute jumps, flyovers, remembrance ceremonies, parades, and historical reenactments. Many were there to cheer the ever-dwindling number of surviving veterans in their late 90s and older. All remembered the thousands who died. Harold Terens, a 101-year-old US veteran who last year married his 96-year-old sweetheart near the D-Day beaches, was back in Normandy. "Freedom is everything," he said. "I pray for freedom for the whole world. For the war to end in Ukraine, and Russia, and Sudan and Gaza. I think war is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting." Terens enlisted in 1942 and shipped to Great Britain the following year, attached to a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron as their radio repair technician. On D-Day, Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commemorated the anniversary of the D-Day landings, in which American soldiers played a leading role, with veterans at the American Cemetery overlooking the shore in the village of Colleville-sur-Mer. French Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu told Hegseth that France knows what it owes to its American allies and the veterans who helped free Europe from the Nazis. "We don't forget that our oldest allies were there in this grave moment of our history. I say it with deep respect in front of you, veterans, who incarnate this unique friendship between our two countries," he said. Hegseth said France and the United States should be prepared to fight if danger arises again, and that "good men are still needed to stand up." "Today the United States and France again rally together to confront such threats," he said, without mentioning a specific enemy. "Because we strive for peace, we must prepare for war and hopefully deter it." The June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France used the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to breach Hitler's defenses in western Europe. A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians between June and August 1944. The exact number of German casualties is unknown, but historians estimate between 4,000 and 9,000 men were killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day. Of those, 73,000 were from the US and 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with Gen. Charles de Gaulle. The Allies faced around 50,000 German forces. More than 2 million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord, the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that started on D-Day.
Asharq Al-Awsat
a day ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Swiss National Bank Denies Currency Manipulation after Being Put on US Watch List
The Swiss National Bank does not engage in currency manipulation, the central bank said on Friday, after the United States added Switzerland to a list of countries being monitored for unfair currency and trade practices. "The SNB does not engage in any manipulation of the Swiss franc," the SNB said after the publication of the US Treasury Report on Thursday. "It does not seek to prevent adjustments in the balance of trade or to gain unfair competitive advantages for the Swiss economy," it added, according to Reuters. The SNB said it remained in contact with US authorities to explain Switzerland's economic situation and monetary policy, and would continue to use interest rates and forex market interventions to pursue its inflation target. The central bank declined to say whether further talks with the United States were planned, but said it acted in the interests of Switzerland, where it aims to keep annual price increases within a band of 0-2%. "Our monetary policy is geared towards the needs of Switzerland," the SNB said.
