Two Maritime Self-Defense Force ships are in Singapore — where a major meeting of defense ministers is under way — as the last stop of a two-month deployment through the Indo-Pacific region.
At a news conference Thursday aboard the helicopter carrier and destroyer Kaga, berthed at Singapore's Changi Naval Base, Rear Adm. Tatsuya Fukuda said it was "just a coincidence" that the two Japanese ships were visiting Singapore at the same time during the "ASEAN Defense Ministers-Plus" meeting.
The defense ministers from the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are gathered with their counterparts from eight major powers outside the region — the United States, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Russia, Australia and New Zealand — for the annual meeting.