TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Japan's newly-appointed Minister of Defense Hamada Yasukazu and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reaffirmed a mutual commitment to defense in their first phone call on Tuesday (Aug. 16), according to the Pentagon.

The statement from Japan said both officials "strongly condemned" China's firing of missiles close to Taiwan and waters overlapping Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for the first time following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. The two also affirmed defense cooperation between Japan, the U.S., and South Korea.

The two agreed to work closely together "for the steady progress of the realignment initiatives of the U.S. Forces in Japan" and for a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific."

Hamada, 66, was previously defense minister between 2008 and 2009, according to the Japan Times. He voiced support for significantly increasing the defense budget and for an amendment to Article 9 of the Pacifist Constitution to clarify the role of the Self-Defense Forces while he served as a Lower House lawmaker.

The phone call came after a joint exercise involving the U.S. Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and South Korea's Navy in Hawaii to practice responding to a North Korean ballistic missile threat. The week-long drill, which had not been held for years, comprised of a missile warning, ballistic missile search, and tracking exercise off Hawaii's coast, according to the Pentagon.