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)
Delegates vote at the closing ceremony of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People on October 22, 2022, in Beijing, China. (Lintao Zhang via Getty Images)
The opening meeting of the third session of the Fourteenth National People’s Congress is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2025. (Ding Haitao via Getty Images)
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during the Twenty-second IISS Shangri-La Dialogue on May 31, 2025, in Singapore. (Yong Teck Lim via Getty Images