Tokyo visit emphasises strength of strategic ties

In Tokyo on Tuesday, Scott Morrison was right to extol the mutual defence pact agreed in principle with new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as “a pivotal moment in the history of Japan-Australia ties”. Not since its 1960 Status of Forces Agreement with the US has Japan concluded such a far-reaching strategic defence pact with any country. The Reciprocal Access Agreement is a legal and administrative framework for military forces operating in both countries. It will be a key plank of Australia’s and Japan’s “responses to an increasingly challenging security environment in our region amid more uncertain strategic circumstances”, the Australian Prime Minister says. As he told Paul Kelly, it means “our defence forces can operate in and around Japan, and Japanese self-defence forces can operate in and around Australia”. The RAA will form the bedrock of bilateral co-operation and will be an important arm of the broader regional alliance led by the US that includes the Quad nations — the US, India, Australia and Japan. Mr Suga, who was Shinzo Abe’s loyal lieutenant for many years and took over in September, is showing he is as committed as his predecessor to the bilateral relationship.

As a backdrop to Mr Morrison’s historic 72-hour round trip to Tokyo, on which he became the first international leader to meet Mr Suga, The Australian’s two-day Strategic Forum was timely. China inevitably was the dominant theme on the first day of the forum. Josh Frydenberg struck the right tone when he emphasised that Australia stood ready to re-engage in “respectful and beneficial dialogue” with Beijing, despite damaging trade pressures that threatened our exports. “Both our countries,” he pointed out, “have benefited hugely from our growing trade relationship; without this, we both lose.” But the Treasurer was emphatic: our national interest was non-negotiable and always would be protected, first and foremost. Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe agreed with Mr Frydenberg about the mutually advantageous trading relationship with China. But as Dr Lowe told the forum, Australia needed to focus on broadening markets. Both India and Indonesia offered “incredible opportunity for growth”, he said.

In a joint statement, Mr Morrison and Mr Suga “expressed serious concerns” about tensions in the East and South China seas, and “reconfirmed their strong opposition to any coercive or unilateral attempts to change the status quo and thereby increase tensions in the region”. Within hours of their announcement of the RAA, the fire and brimstone Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine launched a full-scale broadside. Australia and Japan would pay a price for signing a “very dangerous” defence agreement, the CCP threatened. It accused both nations of being “US tools”. China would take countermeasures, it said.

There is little new or constructive in such invective. But it highlights the relentless belligerence continuing to emerge from Beijing that has made it imperative for democracies across the region and beyond to look to their strategic alliances to defend themselves against Chinese belligerence. Stability in the face of China’s aggression is vital. China has nothing to be concerned about from the RAA, Mr Morrison emphasised in Tokyo, saying: “I think it adds to the stability of the region.”

As Greg Sheridan wrote on Wednesday, Tokyo and Canberra are “bit by bit inching ever closer to a full military alliance. It’s not there yet and it would be wrong to misrepresent it. But it’s getting very close. Australia and Japan, in their common alliance with the US, are as near to an Asian NATO as it gets.” A NATO-style alliance for the Indo-Pacific was touted recently by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. As our ambassador in Washington, Arthur Sinodinos, told the Strategic Forum, the Biden administration is likely to be no less hard-headed about China than the Trump administration. China “just hasn’t got friends in Washington at the moment”, The Australian’s Washington correspondent Cameron Stewart said. But Stewart said president-elect Joe Biden had been “surprisingly sparse” about how he intended to proceed and whether he would maintain the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump. The engagement between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mr Biden in the first month or two of Mr Biden’s term will set the tone of the relationship, as former Australian ambassador to the US Joe Hockey said. That engagement will be vital to the world, especially this region.

After Mr Morrison’s lightning visit he will be in quarantine for 14 days. That reflects his determination to make the trip to Japan, his first abroad since the onslaught of COVID-19. It shows the closeness of Australia’s relationship with the world’s third-largest economy and a country that is a key trade and investment partner as well as a political, cultural and strategic ally.