The Saturday editions of Yomiuri, Mainichi, Nikkei, and Sankei wrote that the GOJ announced on Friday that Japan and Australia will hold a virtual 2+2 meeting of their defense and foreign ministers on June 9. This will be the first time for the two nations to hold such a meeting since October 2018. The papers speculated that the ministers will discuss how to work together to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific. According to Nikkei, Foreign Minister Motegi told reporters on Friday that Australia is an important strategic partner for Japan and that he hopes to discuss with his Australian counterpart ways to elevate their nations’ defense and security cooperation to a new dimension.