U.S., Japan eye cooperation for "any situation" amid Taiwan tension

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and new Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada on Monday affirmed bilateral cooperation to respond to "any situation in the region," while criticizing China's firing of ballistic missiles that fell in waters near Japan during recent military exercises around Taiwan.The United States and Japan also said that the two countries and South Korea recently engaged in a ballistic missile tracking exercise off the coast of Hawaii, underscoring their trilateral cooperation to tackle the North Korean nuclear threat.The drill was conducted during a multinationa…READ FULL ARTICLE