Japan and Australia have signed a defense agreement for closer cooperation

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Japan and Australia on Thursday called for a new agreement on close defense cooperation as a step forward and a milestone in the latest step in strengthening security relations with China’s rising military and economic power.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison held a virtual summit to seal a treaty that has been in place for several years.

Australia has worked with Japan, India, the United States and the United Kingdom to strengthen defense relations, including concerns about China, including pressure on Taiwan, freedom of navigation in the region, and trade disputes.

The Common Access Agreement (RAA), Japan’s first with any country, will allow Morrison to work perfectly in the defense and humanitarian operations of the Australian and Japanese armies.

“Japan is our closest partner in Asia, as evidenced by our unique strategic partnership, Australia’s only partnership – a shared trust between the two major democracies committed to the rule of law, human rights, free trade and the free and open Indus. Pacific,” Morrison said at a signing ceremony. .

“The RAA is a landmark treaty that opens a new chapter in this complex and rapidly changing world of advanced defense and security cooperation, which you and I understand very well,” Morrison told the Japanese leader.

Kishida called the deal a “step forward” and said relations with Australia would be a model for security cooperation with other countries, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official told the media.

Kishida and Morrison agreed that the two sides would work to update the 2007 Japan-Australia Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation as soon as possible to establish a clear direction for their ties, the official said.

At the height of the growing tension over Taiwan’s protests in China, President Xi Jinping wants to assert China’s claims to sovereignty over a democratically governed island.

Kishida and Morrison stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and called for a peaceful settlement of the issue, according to a joint statement issued after the summit.

Prior to the meeting, Morrison said that stronger ties with Japan were needed “to face a new and even more challenging environment, especially within the Indo-Pacific.”

Japan has a power agreement with the United States that allows the United States to rely on warships, fighter jets, and thousands of soldiers in and around Japan as part of an alliance that Washington describes as the basis for regional security.

Kishida was scheduled to travel to Australia on Thursday, but canceled a trip to Japan to deal with the rise in COVID-19 cases.