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)
A Royal Australian Air Force F-35A Lightning II conducts a flypast over HMAS Sydney during Exercise Tasman Shield on March 28, 2023. (Photo via Australian Government Defense)
Taiwan's AAV7 amphibious assault vehicle surfaces from the sea during the Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates China's People's Liberation Army invading Pingtung, Taiwan, on July 28, 2022. (Annabelle Chih via Getty Images)
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer conducts underway operations in the Taiwan Strait on April 10, 2020. (Ensign Samuel Hardgrove via DVIDS)
Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan Island, one of mainland China's closest points to Taiwan, in Fujian province on August 4, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)