SYDNEY, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles will travel to Japan on Saturday to meet his counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi, and discuss deepening defence ties, his office said on Friday.

Australia wanted to engage early with the new government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Australian officials said, noting the two countries had a “shared vision for our region” and were working to respond to increasingly complex global challenges.

“Our relationship with Japan continues to grow from strength to strength – underpinned by close strategic alignment, mutual ambition and enormous potential,” Marles said in a statement ahead of the two-day visit.

Japan and China are in their worst diplomatic crisis in years, after Takaichi said last month in parliament that a hypothetic

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