The United States supports Japan's security and defense cooperation with likeminded allies and partners, including with the United Kingdom and Italy – two close partners of both of our countries – on the development of its next fighter aircraft.
The United States and Japan are bolstering our defense cooperation in a number of promising areas, particularly in advancing opportunities for joint research, development, testing, and evaluation. Together, we have begun important collaboration through a series of discussions on autonomous systems capabilities, which could complement Japan's next fighter program among other platforms. In this context, both sides have concurred to start concrete cooperation within the next year. Such efforts between the United States and Japan greatly strengthen the U.S.-Japan Alliance and build on our cooperation with likeminded partners, further enabling joint responses to future threats in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.
