Japan set to join AUKUS tech pact

Australia, the US and UK are poised to admit Japan to the AUKUS pact’s advanced technology partnership, in a move set to turbocharge the alliance’s development of hi-tech weapons aimed at deterring China.

Japan are set to join AUKUS’s advanced technology partnership.

Australia, the US and Britain are poised to admit Japan to the AUKUS pact’s advanced technology partnership, in a move set to turbocharge the alliance’s development of hi-tech weapons aimed at deterring China.

Defence Minister Richard Marles will within days have talks with his US and British counterparts on expanding the membership of AUKUS’s ‘Pillar II’, which is focused on hypersonics, AI and autonomous systems, quantum computing, advanced cyber capabilities and electronic warfare.

The move, reported initially by Britain’s Financial Times, comes despite concerns among AUKUS members that Tokyo does not yet have sufficient security arrangements in place to prevent the theft of sensitive technology.

Further details are expected when US President Joe Biden hosts Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Wednesday, when they are due to cement the biggest upgrade to the US-Japan security alliance since the 1960s.

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy will travel to Washington DC this week for talks on the AUKUS submarine program with US defence officials and industry partners.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Picture: AFP

US ambassador to Tokyo Rahm Emanuel said last week Japan was “about to become the first additional Pillar II partner”, while Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell also hinted at the new “JAUKUS” arrangement, declaring “we have something to say about that next week”.

Japan’s admission to AUKUS Pillar II will infuriate China, which has warned that the alliance was a threat to regional ­security.

The expansion of the AUKUS technology partnership comes amid ongoing tensions in the South China Sea, where Beijing ordered “combat patrols” in response to a joint naval operation by Australia, the US, Japan and The Philippines.

Anzac-class frigate HMAS Warramunga participated in the exercise on Sunday, in The Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila has faced escalating Chinese maritime aggression.

Mr Marles said the exercise demonstrated Australia’s “unwavering commitment” to maintaining a stable, peaceful region.

AUKUS’s ‘Pillar I’ nuclear submarine agreement will remain a trilateral pact between Australia, the US and Britain, but Japan, as a leading advanced manufacturer, is seen as a natural partner for Pillar II.

Canada and New Zealand have also shown interest in joining the advanced technology partnership.

Mr Marles’s spokeswoman said the inclusion of any other country to AUKUS Pillar II would be decided and announced trilaterally. “Japan is an indispensable defence partner for Australia,” she said.

“Our comprehensive defence relationship is underpinned by close strategic alignment and enormous potential for technology and industrial co-operation.”

Anthony Albanese and Joe Biden last year. Picture: Getty Images

The US Studies Centre’s foreign policy and defence program director, Peter Dean, said adding Japan to the exclusive technology partnership was a positive development, which had been delayed by security concerns.

“The thing that’s been the limitation on this has actually been Japan’s cybersecurity and their personal security protection measures, which the Japanese are addressing,” Professor Dean said.

He said Tokyo’s security processes were “a long way behind” those of Five Eyes’ nations, including Australia.

ANU National Security College head Rory Medcalf said Japan would bring “exceptional science and tech heft” to the partnership but urged AUKUS partners to “hasten slowly” on JAUKUS, with the three partners still needing to develop regulatory, industry and research arrangements to underpin Pillar II.