Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on May 4, 2026. (Getty Images)
A Philippine Air Force Black Hawk helicopter lands on June 29, 2023, on Mavulis Island, which is the Philippines’ northernmost island and is roughly 88 miles from Taiwan. (Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A production line of the Glide, a high-altitude glider that delivers munitions across thousands of miles, is seen at the defense tech startup Mach Industries in Huntington Beach, California, on September 11, 2025. (Getty Images)
Trailers with launchers for guided missiles of a German Patriot air defense system stand on a snow-covered field in southeastern Poland on April 3, 2023. (Getty Images)
Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ships JS Kashima and JS Shimakaze take part in joint drills with NATO allies on June 6, 2022, in the Mediterranean Sea. (Michelle Tucker via DVIDS)
A US Green Beret and members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force prepare for joint drills in Barrigada, Guam, on July 28, 2022. (US Army Photo by Matthew Crane)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a news conference following the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) leaders meeting at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo on May 24, 2022. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
A service member working with Command Task Force 66 unloads a Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft into the Port of Uskta during exercise Baltic Operations 2025 (BALTOPS 25) on June 8, 2025. (US Navy photo)
People pay their condolences to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe at the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association office in Taipei on July 11, 2022. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)