Washington. January 7. INTERFAX - The United States and Japan will sign a new defense cooperation agreement to counter emerging defense threats, including hypersonic and space capabilities, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Thursday.
"The United States and Japan will sign a new defense cooperation agreement to counter emerging military threats, including hypersonic and space," the media quoted U.S. Secretary of State Blinken as saying at the opening of a virtual meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of the two countries.
According to him, the US-Japanese alliance "should not only strengthen the tools we have, but also develop new ones."
"We are launching a new research and development agreement that will make it easier for our scientists, our engineers and program managers to cooperate on emerging defense-related issues, from countering hypersonic threats to expanding space-based capabilities," the US Secretary of State explained.
As threats, he called Russia and China, which "on land, at sea, in space, cyberspace violate international norms," mentioning "Russia's military buildup against Ukraine," Beijing's "provocative" actions against Taiwan, as well as the latest missile launch by North Korea.
At the same time, Blinken stressed that Moscow and Beijing are "deepening bilateral military cooperation."
