The president of the United States and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plan to form a committee on defense industry and allow shipyard workers to perform more maintenance work on US Navy ships as they look to shore up their military alliance, according to a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details ahead of an official announcement. The countries are seeking to intensify cooperation on security in the Indo-Pacific region as China takes an increasingly assertive stance in the South China Sea. Source
