Australia, Japan Confirm Mutual Defense Pact

The Reciprocal Access Agreement is a symbolic breakout for both nations

In a strategy portrayed as a move to enhance ties amid China’s military and economic rise, the Australian and Japanese governments have signed a security treaty in a virtual ceremony to upgrade the two countries’ defence and security cooperation.  The pact is intended to build on strong existing bilateral and multi-lateral relationships, on top of the Quadrilateral Security Arrangement between United States, Japan, India and Australia.

China’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea, where it has built up a collection of islets into military installations, its hegemony over the entire sea, its increasing presence in East Sea areas Japan considers its own backyard, as well as its bellicosity along the border with India have all have contributed to rising concern both in China’s neighbors and the Western Alliance.

Outside of the Japan-US bilateral military agreement, this is the first reciprocal military forces agreement, a breakout from the traditional position of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces (JSDF). It follows more than a year of talks between the two, according to the Associated Press, which were aimed at breaking down the legal barriers to allow the troops of one country to enter the other for training and other purposes.

That will enable Japanese military hardware and personnel to travel outside of Japan and use Australia as a training location, while Australia now has a land base in proximity to the East China Sea and Sea of Japan, near China and North Korea, also being accessible to Taiwan.

The Japanese Self-Defence Forces were formed in 1954, meeting with civic opposition at the time. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which was forced on the country following the US powers victory I WWII, forbids war as a sovereign right, or the use of force to resolve international disputes. Section 2 of Article 9 states that Japan is forbidden to have land, sea, or air forces that have potential war capability.

However, successive Japanese governments over the years have reinterpreted Article 9. The JSDF initially only defended Japan’s coastal areas, leaving strategic defense to US forces stationed on Japanese territories. The doctrine of Japan being an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ was abandoned in 2007, when Japanese forces cooperated with US and other forces in overseas theaters of war. In 2018, Japanese forces conducted multilateral exercises in the Sea of Japan with Britain, Canada and the US.

The JSDF has 240,000 active personnel, with 1.0 percent of GDP going towards defense. Japanese forces are regarded as the best equipped military in the region. THE JSDF has a mixed array of imported and domestically produced equipment, including an aircraft/helicopter carrier, submarines, jet fighters, tanks and mobile artillery, amphibious landing craft, drones, and ballistic missiles. The forces also have sophisticated cyber ops and surveillance infrastructure.

For Australia, the RAA with Japan, represents something much more important than the AUKUS agreement between Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States. The AUKUS agreement is about technological cooperation for armaments expected to be decades off unless the US and UK were to provide Australia with off-the-shelf boats, which is highly unlikely. There won’t be any nuclear submarines in the Australian arsenal for decades to come.

The Australia-Japan RAA puts Australian forces and equipment in a forward position in East Asia in the present time. It shows the Morrison government’s sense of urgency to do something to counter the intimidation coming at Australia from China. Morrison would be hoping this will be a strong electoral plus in the coming general election later this year.

For Japan, this is a breakout. Japan is legitimately acting strategically over potential regional threats in concert with allies. The RAA extensively reinterprets Article 9 of the constitution.

Although the RAA doesn’t change any strategic balance of power in the region, the agreement is a formal declaration of intent. Intent is a major tool of diplomacy, setting the scene of what future détente will look like in the region.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded before the agreement was formally signed, saying that bilateral agreements should promote regional trust, and not target or harm any third party interests.

The Morrison government has calculated that the agreement may ward off retaliation from China. However, it is more likely that China, using Australia as a testing ground for ‘wolfwarrior’ tactics, will retaliate in some form or manner, most probably trade.  Beijing has already reacted angrily against Canberra over the Australian government’s call for a thorough investigation into the origins of he Covid-19 coronavirus, rolling tariffs and other trade actions against export sectors including barley, wine, beef seafood and coal over the past year and a half, adding to existing strains in the relationship

After the celebration and a feeling that it is no longer so diplomatically isolated, the Morrison government must be prepared for China’s response in what is becoming an unspoken cold war, with diplomatic relations between the two countries not rising above ambassadorial relations.

Originally published in the Asia Sentinel 6th January 2022

Click on subscribe so articles can be directly emailed to your inbox: