Singapore – Defence leaders from Australia, Japan, and the United States convened on May 31, 2025, in Singapore for the fifteenth Trilateral Defense Ministerial Meeting (TDMM), coinciding with the 22nd International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia Security Summit (Shangri-La Dialogue). This session also marked the first ministerial meeting of Trilateral Defense Consultations (TDC), initially announced in November 2024.
Richard Marles, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Nakatani Gen, Japanese Minister of Defense, and Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of Defense, reaffirmed their commitment to collective deterrence and advancing trilateral interoperability and operational coordination.
The ministers welcomed the establishment of the Japan-Self Defense Forces (JSDF) Joint Operations Command (JJOC) in March 2025, and reiterated their commitment to increase bilateral and trilateral joint capabilities, including facilitating access for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and other partners to Japan for practical activities with JSDF. They also noted the first trilateral F-35 activity in Australia at Exercise SOUTHERN CROSS in July 2026, and continued progress on trilateral F-35 training, including Exercise COPE NORTH 2025 and Exercise BUSHIDO GUARDIAN 2025.
They aim to leverage Australia’s long-range strike capabilities, Japan’s stand-off defense capabilities, and U.S. systems to enhance trilateral deterrence and response capabilities. They commended progress in building a networked air and missile defense architecture and welcomed efforts to establish an information-sharing mechanism. A live fire exercise is planned at Exercise TALISMAN SABRE in 2027.
The ministers also acknowledged progress on cooperative projects under the trilateral Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) Arrangement, with joint research on composite aerospace materials expected to commence by mid-2026. They look forward to deepening defense industrial partnerships, including exploring collaborative opportunities across their respective defense industrial bases. The three nations affirmed their ambition to expand cooperation with regional partners in the Indo-Pacific to reinforce deterrence and stability.