Australia's defense and foreign ministers will travel to Tokyo next week to meet their Japanese counterparts for an inaugural "two-plus-two" meeting, the government said Friday.
The Foreign and Defense Ministerial Dialogue, more commonly known as two-plus-two, will take place Wednesday and Thursday.
Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said in a statement he will meet with defense chief Fumio Kyuma to discuss a deepening bilateral defense relationship before taking part in the two-plus-two talks with Foreign Ministers Alexander Downer and Taro Aso.
"This meeting will provide us the opportunity to discuss global and regional security issues and the state of our bilateral relationship," Nelson said in the statement.
Australia is the second country to hold two-plus-two talks with Japan. It already holds a similar dialogue with the United States.