This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Bachelor. My colleague in friend Gordon Chang,

I've Gordon G. Chang, and we go to Tokyo to our colleague Lance Gattling, principal of

Nexil Research, to comment on news. News that is of great weight given the contest with

the People's Republic of China these last years. Japan are very good ally, the ally of

all of freedom-loving lands, sits with the Chinese, the headline, and Reuters begins to

tell the story. China, Japan, square off at first security meeting talks in four years.

It reads, China said it was troubled by Japan's military buildup. Tokyo took aim at Beijing's

military ties to Russia, and its suspected use of spy balloons. In the first formal security

talks in four years, Gordon, I start with you. Is this surprising that Japan is acknowledging China

and they're sitting in a room together? Is this a normal development? Good evening to you, Gordon.

Good evening, John. The Japanese, like everybody else, wants to talk to China. So it's not surprising

that Japan has worked hard to put meetings like this together. But of course, these types of meetings

don't succeed because at this moment, the Chinese are not interested in good faith discussions with

others. So yes, they can meet, but the question is, how far will they be able to get?

Lance, a very good day to you in Tokyo. Is this a surprise to the Japanese public, given how clear

the Japanese leadership has been about its opposing China's aggression? Good evening to you, Lance.

Good morning, John. Good morning, Gordon. I'm not sure it's a surprise in that the prime ministers

have been having ongoing discussions with their counterparts and going lower through the ministries

for some time now. Bear in mind that COVID put most of the formal discussions off the table for a while.

There were some attempts at teleconferences during the interim, but they weren't very successful.

This particular agreement is meant to be a formal framework for the signatories of the

agreement to talk about the movement of ships and aircraft and how to avoid unintended consequences,

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