SYDNEY: The leaders of Japan and Australia have agreed to coordinate more closely on Asian security issues, including the South China Sea and North Korea, while reaffirming that the United States remains the cornerstone of their strategic arrangements.
“We confirmed our intention to maintain solid cooperation with the incoming Trump administration,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Sydney following a meeting with Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull. The pair agreed to deepen military ties, including more joint training exercises.
On the South China Sea, Turnbull said he “urged all parties to exercise self-restraint, and to avoid actions that would escalate tensions, including the militarisation of outposts in the South China Sea".
The two leaders also signed a bilateral pact to expand military logistics cooperation, which could include the supply of ammunition by the Japan Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to the Australian military, reflecting Abe's shift toward "proactive pacifism" and a bigger role for the Japanese military.
Abe was in Sydney as part of a four-nation tour aimed at bolstering trade and security cooperation amid mutual concerns about China’s actions in the region and uncertainty over the policies of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Japan and Australia could come under increasing pressure from Trump to act as a bulwark to China in the region.
Incoming US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Senate this week that he was in favour of blocking China’s access to artificial islands it was building in the South China Sea, and that US allies in the region should provide backup in this task.
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating said Tillerson was threatening to involve Australia in a war with China, describing his comments as “simply ludicrous".
Abe and Turnbull also presented a united front in their support for free trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which Trump has said he will kill off on his first day in office.
“We agreed we would coordinate on the early entry into force of the TPP,” Abe said.
However, it is not clear whether the TPP can become a reality if it is not ratified by the largest of the 12 economies taking part.
Earlier, Turnbull urged resistance to protectionist moves. “It is imperative we resist those voices urging us to close ourselves off from the world, because protectionism is a path to poverty,” he wrote in an article for The Australian newspaper.
In addition to revising the military logistics pact, known as the Japan-Australia acquisition and cross-servicing agreement (Acsa), the leaders said they hoped to conclude negotiations as soon as this year on a reciprocal access agreement. Turnbull said such an agreement would "make it easier for our respective defence forces to conduct joint visits and exercises".
The move is also in line with Abe's drive for "proactive pacifism," charactericed by contentious new security legislation expanding the role of the SDF in various areas.
The legislation, which prompted public criticism that Abe seeks to erode the country's pacifist post-World War II Constitution, allows Japan to supply ammunition to foreign defence forces responding to situations deemed to have an "important influence on Japan's peace and security".
The provision of weapons and ammunition was excluded from the past version of the Acsa, which came into force in January 2013. The pact enables the SDF and Australian military to share food, fuel and other supplies during UN peacekeeping operations, international relief operations and joint exercises.
Abe, who began his six-day regional tour in the Philippines, will fly to Indonesia on Sunday and will round off his trip in Vietnam.