Recent economic and political volatility in Asia and the rest of the world are spurring closer strategic cooperation between Tokyo and Canberra, Australia’s foreign minister said yesterday.
“Australia will weather global and regional volatility, but that means our relationship with trusted partners like Japan is even more important,” Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said during a speech in Tokyo, where she met with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida.
Bishop, on her fifth visit to Japan, was yesterday to travel to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani.
Photo: AFP
As well as security cooperation with Japan, Australia is seeking deeper economic ties with China, its largest trading partner.
Japan is hoping that Australia’s appetite for deeper security ties will bolster its bid to sell Canberra a fleet of stealthy submarines. Kishida in his meeting with Bishop yesterday noted the strategic significance of a Japanese built submarine.
Australia this year is to pick the design for a new fleet of submarines in a deal worth as much as A$40 billion (US$28.7 billion). Japan, which is offering a variant of its 4,200-tonne Soryu-class submarine, is competing against rival bids from Germany and France for the contract.
Washington is encouraging closer security cooperation between Japan and Australia as it looks to its Asian allies to shoulder a bigger security role as China’s rise alters the balance of power in the region.
Bishop pointed to tensions in the South China Sea and “random acts of destabilization,” such as North Korea’s recent rocket launch and nuclear test as “challenges” in Asia.
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