The future of security relations between Japan and Australia

Akiko Fukushima, PhD, Senior Fellow, Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research

Question 1: How do security relations between Japan and Australia contribute to regional stability in the Indo-Pacific and beyond?

In the Indo-Pacific, diversifying security threats are increasing, ranging from North Korean WMD/CBRN (weapons of mass destruction/chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) development and provocations, Chinese increasingly assertive actions in the East and the South China Seas, enhanced military cooperation among China, Russia and North Korea on a bilateral basis, to new areas such as cyber and space. Moreover, after the Hamas attack of Israel and Israeli counterattack since October 2023, the maritime security of the Indo-Pacific is under growing threat, for example in the Gulf of Aden with Houthi’s attacks to merchant vessels and the US-UK counterattack against Houthi bases. The situation may expand to other conflicts in the Middle East. Given the instability in the Gulf, the bulk of merchant vessels from and to the Indo-Pacific are compelled to avoid the Red Sea in their shipping services, affecting supply chains. The security threatening events in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Iran and possibly in the Indo-Pacific and their ramification are observed as more interconnected than ever. They deepen the security concerns for the stability in the Indo-Pacific, even increasingly affecting the national security of countries in the region.

Against these growing security threats and challenges, the US certainly plays a central role through their forward deployment and extended and integrated deterrence capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. The US allies in the region are also stepping up their security preparedness, cooperating closely with the US. In the past two decades, the role of Japan and Australia for the stability of the region has further gained impetus and weight. This is reflected in changes made in the respective security policies of Japan and Australia and their bilateral security relations. Japan has revised its interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution on its collective defense with the US and its allies in 2015 and has decided to own counterstrike capabilities in the 2022 National Security Strategy. Australia has reduced its official warning time which is “the government’s calculation of the country’s window before a significant possible attack” from ten years to immediate.

Upon hindsight, Japan and Australia have led regional cooperation since 1978 when then Japanese Prime Minister Ohira Masayoshi proposed a regional economic cooperation in the Pacific Rim and when the follow-up meeting was held in Canberra, Australia in 1980. This led to the launch of a track 1.5 meeting of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). Capitalizing on the PECC experiences, after the end of the Cold War in the same month of November 1989 when the Berlin Wall crumbled down, Japan and Australia launched the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) at Track 1. Since then, the two countries have led and promoted regional cooperation in the Asia Pacific, involving the US on economic cooperation.

Then came the security cooperation. Japan and Australia differed in their security perceptions due to the geographical distance from regional threats. Such differences, however, have recently narrowed due to the perceived growing security concerns in the region beyond the tyranny of geography and the ever-blurring borderline between military and non-military threats. This has led Japan and Australia to cooperate on the security front as well. After 9/11, Japan and Australia cooperated with the US in its Operation Enduring Freedom for Afghanistan. The two Defense Forces, that is Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and Australia’s Defense Forces, worked side-by-side in Samawah, Iraq when they both dispatched forces for peacebuilding and reconstruction. These joint efforts as the allies of the US have subsequently led to the Japan-Australia Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation in 2007. In order to operationalize their cooperation, Japan and Australia concluded the Information Security Agreement on the sharing of classified information in March 2013. It is noteworthy that the Japan-Australia bilateral security cooperation aimed at the stability of the Indo-Pacific, as was explicitly mentioned when they agreed on the Special Strategic Partnership in 2014, which reflects interests of the two countries. Australia has identified the Indo-Pacific as a region relevant to its security in its White Paper in 2012, while the Indo-Pacific region is a key focus for Japan’s foreign policy since 2017.

Furthermore, in the latest Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation announced in 2022, Japan and Australia mapped out how the two cooperate for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). In 2022 Japan and Australia also signed the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) that establishes procedures for visiting forces and expedites cooperation between the two defense forces. The RAA eases the burden of conducting joint military training and exercises in each country by relaxing immigration control for troops and by simplifying procedures for transporting weapons and ammunition. It also eases the two forces to aid each other in cases of natural disasters. With the declaration and the RAA, Japan and Australia have stepped up their security cooperation by conducting more sophisticated bilateral, trilateral and multilateral joint drills and exercises and by promoting mutual use of facilities including maintenance, asset protection. These operations contribute to enhancing interoperability, personal links and trust between the two Defense Forces. Bilateral cooperation extends to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. They also cooperate in capacity building assistance for regional partners.

Japan and Australia are fully aware that any gap in their solidarity or attention deficit on potential security risks in the region will invite those actors who want to change the status quo to act. Given the aforementioned interconnectivity of security risks, the Japan and Australia security relations contribute to enhancing regional stability and beyond.