US and Japan Agree to Jointly Produce Air-to-Air Missiles at New Japan Facility

The United States and Japan have agreed to establish a facility in Japan for the joint production of advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Wednesday, in the latest step by the two allies to deepen their defence cooperation.

Koizumi announced the agreement at a news conference in Cebu, in the central Philippines, after meeting US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on the sidelines of an annual meeting of Southeast Asian defence ministers and their counterparts from major Asian and Western countries. The meetings are intended to reduce the risk of a major regional conflict and to strengthen defence cooperation; on the sidelines, the United States, China and their respective partners have frequently traded criticism.

The missiles to be produced under a joint effort called "Operation Supercharge" are "essential for the F-35", Koizumi said, without giving further details of the agreement. The F-35 is a US-made stealth fighter aircraft used by the Japanese military and several other air forces.

During his brief meeting with Hegseth, Koizumi said he had "shared a sense of crisis ... regarding the increasingly severe regional situation" and that the two sides had agreed to strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US alliance "with greater speed and intensity than ever before".

"We reaffirmed the importance of a free and open international order based on the rule of law, which rejects any attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo through the use of force, coercion or other means," he said. He added that their discussions were not directed at any specific country.

Both governments have repeatedly expressed concern over China's military build-up and maritime claims in the region, which they describe as increasingly assertive. Beijing has rejected such characterisations, maintaining that its military activities are defensive and lawful and that its territorial claims are consistent with international law.

Speaking separately to defence ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who were led by the host, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, Hegseth restated the Trump administration's commitment to helping deter aggression in the region. Like Koizumi, he did not name China while setting out his security concerns.

"The approach we're taking, we describe as strong, quiet and clear," Hegseth told the ASEAN defence chiefs. "Strong enough to deter coercion and aggression, quiet enough to avoid needless escalation or public theatrics to let our actions speak for themselves."

His message, he said, is "clear enough that our friends, our partners and potential adversaries understand precisely where the United States stands and that we will defend our interests and the interests of our allies and partners".

Hegseth has assured the Philippines, Washington's oldest treaty ally in Asia, that the administration will build a robust deterrence against China's actions in the disputed South China Sea. Beijing claims the busy waterway, a key global trade route, almost in its entirety.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei — all ASEAN member states — along with Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea. Confrontations have escalated in particular between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy vessels in disputed shoals and outlying waters.

Washington has warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea. Separately, Beijing and Tokyo have a long-running dispute over small Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, with both sides frequently accusing the other of infringing on their maritime territory.