Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday renewed his commitment to strengthening his country’s military and deepening its alliance with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump.

Ishiba, who made the comments during an annual troop review held at Camp Asaka on the outskirts of Tokyo, said the security environment around Japan and the international community has deteriorated significantly due to the escalation of tensions with China, Russia and North Korea. He pledged to strengthen Japan’s military power.

He said violations of Japanese airspace by Chinese and Russian warplanes earlier this year “not only violated Japanese sovereignty, but also threatened Japan’s security and are absolutely unacceptable.” He said Japan faces growing threats from China’s accelerated military activity around Japan’s coast and North Korea’s repeated missile launches.

“As we face the most serious and complex security environment, I will balance and strengthen Japan’s diplomacy and security,” Ishiba said in his speech to hundreds of troops gathered for the ceremony.

The Japan-US alliance is key to achieving this, Ishiba said, pledging to strengthen Japan’s ties with the United States and work closely with Trump, as they agreed during a brief telephone conversation Thursday.

Ishiba took office on October 1, replacing his unpopular predecessor Fumio Kishida, but his governing coalition badly lost the recent legislative elections and may have difficulty pursuing his party’s planned policies and budget plans in the coming months.

Ishiba pledged to continue the ongoing military buildup plan under the 2022 security strategy adopted by his predecessor, Fumio Kishida, which calls for a counterattack capability with long-range cruise missiles, a break with its sole principle of self-defense. Ishiba said he would continue strengthening the command system to improve operations between Japanese and American troops.

After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan had prioritized economic recovery over defense under its war-renunciation constitution, but it gradually built up its defense capability over the course of of recent years.