LONDON, March 11 -- Britain and Australia will launch a new foreign policy dialogue on Asia as the two countries seek to intensify their security, defense and intelligence cooperation in the Asia Pacific region, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) announced Tuesday.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defense Secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday met Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Defense Minister David Johnston for the annual Britain-Australia ministerial consultations on defense, security, and foreign policy.

At the talks, the ministers decided to launch a new dialogue on Asia involving foreign policy experts from Britain and Australia, the FCO said in a statement.

The new dialogue mechanism, based on a partnership between the British Ditchley Foundation and the Sydney-based think tank, the Lowy Institute for International Policy, is to have its first meeting at Ditchley Park of Oxfordshire in Britain in June.

At the meeting, the foreign ministers signed a joint statement to enable the two countries' diplomatic networks to share best practice and develop new initiatives in areas such as consular crisis training, IT and property cooperation, according to the FCO.

The ministers also discussed the UN Security Council agenda, challenges around conflict and crisis response and developments in the Asia Pacific region, reaffirming the importance of intelligence cooperation between the two countries..

The two sides also sought to develop "interoperability" between their respective armed forces, and build on their "close relationship" fostered in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The ministers also decided to intensify their collaboration in "shared priority areas", including leveraging the private sector and aid for trade, gender equality and women's empowerment, and humanitarian response, the FCO said.