TOKYO -- The U.S. and Japan are leading efforts to expand a multilateral security cooperation framework, with their defense ministers to meet Australian and Philippine counterparts this weekend in Singapore, Japanese officials told Nikkei.
The gathering, which marks the first time defense chiefs from those four countries will hold a quadrilateral meeting, is expected to take place as early as Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore. The U.S. and Japan will also hold separate trilateral meetings with defense ministers from South Korea and Australia.
