対中朝ロ「緊密に連携」　日米防衛相が電話会談

　中谷元防衛相は８日、米国のオースティン国防長官と初めて電話会談した。日本周辺での中国や北朝鮮、ロシアの活動激化を踏まえ「これまで以上に日米および地域のパートナーと緊密に連携していく」と確認。同盟の抑止力・対処力強化を推進すると申し合わせた。
　自衛隊と米軍の指揮統制向上について、オースティン氏は「円滑な連携が構築されるよう努力していく」と伝達。共にラグビー経験者であることを踏まえ、中谷氏は「お互いスクラムを組んで仕事をしよう」と呼び掛けた。（2024/10/08-23:27）

The Japanese and U.S. defense chiefs have agreed to work together with each other and regional partners even more closely to deal with increasing activities around Japan by China, North Korea and Russia.
   In their first telephone talks Tuesday, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also affirmed that they will strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. alliance.
   Austin told Nakatani that the United States will make efforts to build smooth cooperation for an improvement in command and control between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military.
   Considering that both have experience in rugby, Nakatani said, "Let's work together like in a scrum."
   According to Nakatani, they did not discuss Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's proposals to revise the Japan-U.S. status of forces agreement and create an Asian version of NATO.