Attention is also paid to whether the meeting with the Minister of National Defense of China is concluded
[워싱턴=AP/뉴시스]U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the 16th (local time). 2023.05.17.
[워싱턴=뉴시스]Correspondent Kim Nan-young = U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will visit Asia and Europe next week. During this period, meetings between the defense ministers of South Korea, the United States, and Japan were also scheduled.
The US Department of Defense released a press release on the 25th (local time) and announced that Secretary Austin would visit Japan, Singapore, India and France next week. This trip is Secretary Austin’s seventh trip to the Indo-Pacific.
He will first meet high-ranking officials, including Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, in Japan, and visit a US military base in Japan to encourage his soldiers. The Ministry of National Defense assessed that the visit was made in the phase of modernizing the US-Japan alliance.
Afterwards, he will move to Singapore, where he will attend the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue (Asian Security Conference) of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IISS). The Shangri-La Dialogue is attended by key national security officials from the Asia-Pacific region every year.
Secretary Austin will give a speech at the event, and a meeting between the defense ministers of Korea, the US, and Japan is expected to take place at the event. In addition, attention is focused on whether the meeting between Secretary Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Li Sangfu will be held.
“The secretary will meet with key leaders to advance regional defense partnerships to support the common vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the ministry said.
After the Shangri-La Dialogue, Minister Austin will visit New Delhi, India, where he will also meet with his counterpart, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, and other leaders. After that, he is expected to travel to France to meet with French and British defense officials.
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