The Secretary of Defense of the US and Japan are discussing the strengthening of capacity in East Asia.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi discussed how to strengthen the defense capabilities of countries in the regions adjacent to the East Asian continent on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting. They emphasized the importance of increasing defense investments and further strategic cooperation to strengthen deterrence and effectively implement a strategy of preventing the enemy from entering the "first island chain," the Pentagon said. The "first chain of islands" is an archipelago group, including the Japanese islands, extending from the Aleutian Islands to Indonesia along the East Asian continent.