US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured his Japanese counterpart Yasukazu Hamada during their meeting on Wednesday that the alliance of their two countries is "the cornerstone of security in the Indo-Pacific region."

"Chinese measures to exercise coercion in the Taiwan Strait and the waters around Japan are provocative, destabilizing and aggressive," the Pentagon quoted Austin in a statement as saying.

He stressed that the US response to those actions "together with Japan and our other allies and partners has been responsible, consistent and resolute."

He also stressed the United States' commitment to Japan's defense, explaining that this includes "our commitment to an expanded, credible and robust deterrence using the full range of our conventional and nuclear capabilities."

For his part, Hamada expressed his country's desire "to work with the United States to strengthen our comprehensive alliance, especially with regard to military capabilities."

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