Integrating defences with Japan

Deepening defence ties between Australia and Japan are a worthwhile step in “bending the arc of history toward liberty” in the Asia-Pacific, to borrow US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s phrase. As part of the process, Japanese F-35 fighter jets will begin regular deployments to Australia in joint training exercises. Amid plans with the US to produce guided missiles in Australia, Australia and Japan will also co-operate in developing long-range guided weapons, integrated air and missile defences, and undersea warfare capabilities. In talks in Tokyo on Friday, en route home from AUSMIN in Washington, Defence Minister Richard Marles, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and their Japanese counterparts agreed to step up military exchanges to build greater ­interoperability.

After Australia and the US resolved to invite Japan to join US military deployments in Australia, the ministers agreed in Tokyo that Japanese F-35s would train in Australia, “with an eye to future rotational deployment of Japan’s fighters including F-35s”.

The need to work closely with friends was clear, Mr Marles said. “And when it comes to friends for Australia, Japan stands in the front row.’’ He also opened the door to Japanese involvement in the AUKUS partnership between Australia, the US and Britain. Australia and Japan had “never been more strategic­ally aligned”, he said.

He highlighted the AUKUS agenda to develop new undersea and electronic warfare capabilities, hypersonic missiles and hypersonic countermeasures, advanced cyber and quantum technologies, and artificial intelligence as potential areas of co-operation. “My intent is to grow defence industry integration with Japan – bilaterally, through our trilateral mechanisms with the United States, and, when ready, via our advanced capabilities work in AUKUS as well,’’ he said. Australia and Japan working together, as democratic middle powers, in tandem with greater defence interaction with the US, will strengthen the strategic position of both nations in an increasingly dangerous region. Such a security partnership, as Peter Jennings wrote on Saturday, “is the best strategy we have to deter conflict’’. Increasing Japan’s role in military operational planning with Australia and the US, he argued, was “ something Australian governments and the Defence Organisation have brilliantly achieved’’.

Speaking in Tokyo, Mr Marles highlighted the recent thaw in Australia-China diplomatic relations. But he expressed concerns over China’s vast military build-up “without transparency or reassurance to the region of China’s strategic intent”. In its recent analysis of the People’s Liberation Army, the Pentagon noted that China’s goal, ahead of its 2049 centenary, was to transform the international rules-based system “to forge an external environment … more favourable to the People’s Republic’s political governance system and national interests’’. Closer ties between Australia and Japan have annoyed China, with English-language mouthpiece the Global Times writing on Saturday that the two countries were “willing to be pawns of the US, while threatening regional peace and security’’.