Japan, Australia to sign defence deal

Japan this week will sign its most significant defence agreement in more than 60 years by upgrading its military co-operation with Australia.

Japanese Ambassador to Australia Shingo Yamagami. Photo: Jamila Toderas

Japan this week will sign its most significant defence agreement in more than 60 years by upgrading its military co-operation with Australia.

The landmark deal will involve a ramp-up in joint exercises, faster deployments and improve the ability of the Australian and Japanese military to undertake operations together.

Hailed as a “pivotal moment” in Japanese-Australian relations by Scott Morrison, the new agreement will mark the beginning of a much closer defence relationship between Canberra and Tokyo, but was still being finalised late on Tuesday night.

Japanese and Australian sources were optimistic the deal would go ahead despite Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan being forced to cancel his trip amid the spiralling Omicron outbreak across the world.

The Reciprocal Access Agreement has been under negotiation since 2014 and is the first agreement of its kind that Japan is finalising with another nation, with Tokyo and Canberra moving to strengthen regional security amid a period of heightening strategic uncertainty and tensions in the Indo-Pacific fuelled by a more assertive Beijing.

Before it was cancelled, the trip was to have been the first bilateral visit made by Mr Kishida since he became prime minister in October and a symbol of the tightening relationship with Australia and shared commitment to democratic values, human rights, open markets and the rule of law.

Mr Morrison and Mr Kishida are scheduled to hold a virtual meeting to accompany the signing of the agreement, which will relax entry arrangements for foreign troops and military equipment, slashing red tape as the tempo of joint operations ticks up.

It will be seen in Tokyo as the most significant defence agreement after the US Status of Forces Agreement, signed in 1960, under which America maintains about 45,000 troops in Japan. Japan is also in negotiations for a similar arrangement with Britain, and France has expressed an interest in striking its own arrangement with Tokyo.

Japanese ambassador Shingo Yamagami told The Australian the agreement with Australia would open a “new chapter in our co-operation” and argued that Mr Kishida had established a strong rapport with Mr Morrison on the sidelines of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow late last year.

“We will increase joint exercises in terms of both number, quantity as well as quality,” Mr Yamagami told The Australian. “Already we have been conducting such joint exercises of Talisman Sabre, or Southern Jackaroo among our armies or Bushido Guardian between our air forces.

“There are various kinds of joint exercises already conducted between Australia and Japan. I do expect that number will increase significantly. But not only that, perhaps more importantly, we will upgrade the quality of our joint exercises.

“This will certainly increase our interoperability. Already discussions are being made to conduct air-to-air refuelling – that’s one of the most difficult operations between air forces. Things like this will open a new chapter in our co-operation.”

In an interview with The Australian, Mr Yamagami said Japan was “facing a security environment in which we have to address ever increasing difficulties in areas such as the South China Sea and the East China Sea or throughout the Indo Pacific region”.

“In this regard we believe Australia and Japan are in the same boat sharing basic values such as democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and a market economy. Also, more importantly we do share strategic interests. We would like to establish a free and open Indo-Pacific. So, there is a lot we can do together.”

An in-principle agreement was signed for the RAA in late 2020, with Mr Morrison saying it would provide a clear framework for “how our defence forces operate in each other’s countries”.

Mr Morrison said it would provide new guidelines for joint military exercises through to natural disaster responses and humanitarian support missions, allowing both nations to deploy defence forces more quickly and with less administration.

“The Australian and Japanese militaries have in recent years increased co-operation and exercise activities,” he said. “These have enhanced our ability to work together towards our common security objectives in the Indo-Pacific region and our military interoperability.

“The significance of the RAA cannot be understated. It will form a key plank of Australia’s and Japan’s response to an increasingly challenging security environment in our region.”

Mr Yamagami said the agreement was aimed at establishing a stronger deterrent to the outbreak of hostilities in the region, which he warned was facing new and rapidly intensifying strategic challenges every year.

“Let me put it this way: this is for the sake of increasing deterrence. The key word is deterrence,” he said. “Yes, we are facing a deteriorating security environment, worsening, getting more serious year after year. But in light of such a security environment, what we can do together is first of all to increase deterrence so that we do not want to see any actual combat to take place. I think that is on the mind of policymakers and military leaders of our two countries.”

In a press conference in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, Mr Kishida said on Tuesday that he had been weighing up visiting Australia and the US this month, but that he would no longer be travelling given the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Mr Kishida said he needed to take every precaution to meet the Covid challenge in Japan ahead of the Diet session that starts later this month, but expressed his desire to embark on a year of diplomacy with world leaders in 2022.

He said his priority was to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific with a view to elevating co-operation among the Quad nations – including the US, India and Australia – to the next level. He said preparations remained in place for in-person meetings as soon as possible with Mr Morrison and US President Joe Biden.

One of the key stumbling blocks to the RAA had previously been how local laws would apply to visiting forces, with Australia having signalled its opposition to its troops facing the death penalty for any major crimes committed in Japan.

Mr Yamagami said the relationship with Australia extended beyond the security realm and elevated the shared commitment from both nations to global trading rules. He expressed the importance of ensuring that any new entrants to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for trans-Pacific Partnership – a Pacific-rim trading bloc to which China is seeking entry – had a demonstrated track record of abiding by global trading rules.

“I fully agree with my good friend (Australian Trade Minister) Dan Tehan when it comes to the importance of records of compliance with trade agreements,” he said. “We do firmly believe that both economic coercion and unfair trade practices are incompatible with the CPTPP. The CPTPP is renowned for setting a high standard in terms of … trade liberalisation.

“Any potential aspirant to become a member of CPTPP has to abide by those high standards and, in that regard, Taiwan’s record has been remarkable. That’s why Japanese politicians and our foreign minister have repeatedly said we do welcome Taiwan’s application.

“But of course right now, most of the countries are concentrating their efforts on examining the accession application of the UK. So now is a time for every member of CPTPP to focus on British accession.”