Japan and Australia have agreed to allow their respective militaries to have access to each other’s countries in a historic accord for two key American allies.
“This is a significant evolution of this relationship,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said while traveling in Tokyo. “We share a special Strategic Partnership and are deeply committed to working together in support of a free, open, inclusive and stable Indo-Pacific. Our partnership is built on shared values and interests, and enduring trust and respect.”
Morrison made a point to emphasize that the deal ought not “cause any concern elsewhere in the region,” in an implicit message of reassurance to China, yet touted the “pivotal moment” in relations between Canberra and Tokyo.
But the pact, known formally as a “reciprocal access agreement”, is Japan’s first since the 1960 agreement that laid the foundation for the United States-Japan alliance, and is sure to raise eyebrows in China as the latest example of democratic neighbors cooperating against Beijing.
“The Chinese definitely are worried that the Japanese could use this to, for example, exercise more with the Australians, in Australia, away from Japan,” the Heritage Foundation’s Dean Cheng said.
That would allow Japan to take advantage of Australia’s ability to stage exercises for ground and air forces, such as the U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighter jets that both nations operate. Japan, on the other hand, is likelier to host maritime exercises, such as anti-submarine hunting operations, according to analysts.
“It’s hard to find good training areas in the Pacific, and both Japan and Australia have some really valuable training options,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Zack Cooper said.
The pact is regarded as a prize in Washington. Leading Senate Republicans recently endorsed “a deeper defense relationship between Japan and Australia, including supporting reciprocal access agreements and trilateral U.S.-Japan-Australia intelligence sharing” in a major legislative proposal to overhaul U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific.
“In the Indo-Pacific region, security and defense cooperation between Japan and Australia, which have the will and capacity to contribute to regional peace and stability, is becoming increasingly important,” Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. “I hereby announce that we reached agreement in principle on a reciprocal access agreement, which had been negotiated to elevate security and defense cooperation between Japan and Australia to a new level.”
The pact continues Japan’s emergence from the shadow of the Second World War, underscored by the fact that Australia and Japan were enemies in that conflict. That’s a welcome trend, former White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster maintained when asked if there is “any downside to emboldening Japan” to take a larger military role in the region.
“Japan has got to be one of our strongest allies, in terms of how we see our interests, but also, of course, it’s a thriving democracy and a free market economic system,” McMaster said Tuesday during a discussion of The China Nightmare, a new book by AEI Asian Studies Director Dan Blumenthal.
“The vision that Japan has for the region has been immensely positive, in terms of the free and open Indo-Pacific.”
That was a reference to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s role in pioneering the concept of the “free and open Indo-Pacific,” as an initiative to help rally rule-of-law nations to counter China’s attempt to gain sovereignty over strategic chokepoints. That effort resulted in expanded cooperation between Japan, Australia, India, and the U.S. — a so-called Quad that China fears could form the basis of a NATO-style security bloc in Asia.
“It also helps improve our ability to network those allies into a stronger coalition,” Cooper said.
