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)
US President Donald Trump waves as Foxconn CEO Terry Gou and Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, watch at the groundbreaking for the Foxconn Technology Group computer screen plant on June 28, 2018, in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin. (Photo by Andy Manis/Getty Images)
Soldiers hold US and Japanese flags during a welcome ceremony for Donald Trump and Melania Trump at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on May 27, 2019. (Brendan SmialowskiAFP via Getty Images)
Antony Blinken and the US delegation sit opposite Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa during the "Extended Deterrence Ministerial Meeting" in Tokyo on July 28, 2024. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images)
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a press conference a day after Japan's lower house election on October 28, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. (Kim Kyung-Hoon via Getty Images)
US Steel Corporation workers rally outside the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, supporting the takeover by Japan's Nippon Steel, on September 4, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
The newly elected leader and sitting chairperson of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Shigeru Ishiba, speaks at a press conference following his election on September 27, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool/Getty Images)