Regional security and the strengthening of ties with Japan and the US are to be high on the agenda for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison when he meets leaders from both countries amid continuing concerns about the growing influence of China in the Asia-Pacific region.
Morrison is to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tomorrow, when Abe makes a flying visit to Darwin between an ASEAN summit in Singapore and the weekend’s meeting of leaders of the APEC in Papua New Guinea.
Abe is to become the first Japanese leader to visit Darwin since the bombing of the northern city by Japanese Imperial Army forces in World War II.
Photo: AFP
Morrison would then hold meetings with US Vice President Mike Pence during the APEC meeting in Port Moresby.
Pence is to use the northern city of Cairns as his base for the meetings amid concerns over security in Papua New Guinea.
Several other APEC leaders are also expected to stay in Cairns.
Trade and investment is to be a major focus of Morrison’s meetings with Abe, who is to use his Darwin trip to also visit Japan’s biggest-ever foreign investment, the US$40 billion Ichthys gas project in which Japanese firm Inpex is the majority shareholder and operator.
The project, which pipes offshore gas from the northwest Australian coast to Darwin, last month began its first shipments of liquefied natural gas to Japan.
“Prime Minister Abe’s visit is deeply symbolic and significant and it will build on our two countries’ strong and enduring friendship as well as our economic, security, community and historical ties,” Morrison said in a statement.
The meeting comes at a time when a key topic for Australia, its second-largest trading partner Japan and other Asian and South Pacific neighbors is how to respond to the growing influence of China, Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Australia and Japan are expected to reach an agreement in Darwin to facilitate larger and more regular joint military exercises, part of a strengthening of defense and economic ties amid growing uncertainty about US involvement in Asia under the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Negotiations began in 2014 for the Reciprocal Access Agreement, which would make it easier for Japanese and Australian forces to visit either country with equipment for military exercises.
An official from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week told the Australian Financial Review newspaper that the two countries were “at the final stage in discussions” on the agreement, set to become the first pact on visiting forces Tokyo has signed outside of its arrangement with the US.
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