Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, hold bilateral summit talks Friday at the State Guest House in Tokyo. (Photo and description courtesy AFP-JIJI via Japan Times)
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Following Prime Minister Turnbull's short trip to Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Abe, December 18, 2015, Reiji Yoshida for The Japan Times, same day, in part reported:
..."According to Japanese officials, during the closed part of the meeting, Abe explained Japan’s proposal for joint production of a modified version of Japan’s latest Soryu-class submarine, which experts say is one of the world’s best and quietest nonnuclear submarines.
Turnbull thanked Japan for its proposal but only said Australia will make a decision in the first half of the next year, the Japanese officials said.
France and Germany have proposed their own plans to export submarines to Australia. Canberra is set to choose one model through a competitive evaluation process.
In the joint statement, the two leaders also expressed “strong support for the United States rebalance” policy to maintain it military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
The U.S. is believed to be supporting Japan’s bid to export submarines to Australia, hoping it will further strengthen trilateral military cooperations in the region." Ends - see WHOLE ARTICLE.
Pete