South Korea, the United States, Japan and Australia are reportedly discussing holding security meetings on a regular basis.

According to Japan’s Sankei Shimbun on Wednesday, the four countries are mulling ways for bureau chiefs of their foreign affairs and defense-related government agencies to meet regularly.

The paper said Washington and Tokyo have been actively seeking to organize the four-way meeting since they, along with South Korea, underlined the importance of their cooperation in the field of security during a meeting of their foreign ministers last week.

The report said that Washington and Tokyo decided to include Australia in the security talks in a bid to lessen Seoul’s strong wariness on engaging in security cooperation with Japan.