Japan’s Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said on Saturday Tokyo will invite commissioned air force officers from every member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to observe Air Defence Force training, Kyodo News reports. Previously, at the 10th  Japan-ASEAN Defense Vice-Ministerial Forum, participants agreed on the importance of further developing the Japan-ASEAN defense cooperation and to uphold the rule of law in light of the increasingly complex and diversifying threats. Japan’s strengthened maritime alliances with Indonesia – the de-facto leader of ASEAN – along with Vietnam and the Philippines – the two foremost ASEAN claimants in the South China Sea dispute – aim to counter the threat posed to the region’s sea lanes by an increasingly assertive China, writes Michael Hart for The Diplomat.