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Agence France-Presse

Australia and Japan agreed to share more sensitive intelligence and deepen military cooperation on Saturday, signing a security pact aimed at countering China’s military rise.
Prime ministers Fumio Kishida and Anthony Albanese signed the accord in the Western Australian city of Perth, revamping a 15-year-old agreement drafted when terrorism and weapons proliferation were the overriding concerns.
“This landmark declaration sends a strong signal to the region of our strategic alignment”, said Albanese, hailing the “Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation”.
Under the accord, the two countries agreed military forces would train together in Northern Australia, and would “expand and strengthen cooperation across defence, intelligence sharing”, Australian officials said.
Without citing China or North Korea by name, Kishida said the agreement was a response to an “increasingly harsh strategic environment”.
Japan plan to raise taxes to fund defence budget ‘dead on arrival’: analysts
Neither Australia nor Japan has the armies of overseas intelligence operatives and foreign informants needed to play in the major leagues of global espionage.
Japan does not have a foreign spy agency equivalent to America’s CIA, Britain’s MI6, Russia’s FSB or Australia’s much smaller agency ASIO.
But according to expert Bryce Wakefield, Australia and Japan do have formidable signals and geospatial capabilities – electronic eavesdropping and hi-tech satellites that provide invaluable intelligence on adversaries.
Wakefield, director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, said the agreement could also have broader significance, providing a template for Japan to accelerate intelligence ties with countries like Britain.


Some even see the accord as another step toward Japan joining the powerful Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance between Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
It is “an epoch-making event that Japan can share SIGINT with a foreign nation except for the United States,” Ken Kotani, an expert in Japan’s intelligence history at Nihon University said.
“This will strengthen the framework of Quad (Australia, India, Japan and the US) and the first step for Japan’s join to the Five Eyes,” he added.
Such a suggestion would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. But events in Japan’s neighbourhood have forced a rethink of the country’s pacifist policies established in the wake of World War II.
Japan and China mark 50 years of formal ties amid deepening ‘trust deficit’
In recent years North Korea has repeatedly fired missiles over and around Japan, while China has built the world’s largest navy, revamped the globe’s biggest standing army, and amassed a nuclear and ballistic arsenal right on Tokyo’s doorstep.
But hurdles remain for Japan’s closer security cooperation with allies.
Japan’s intelligence sharing with the US and other partners has been hampered by long-standing concerns about Tokyo’s ability to handle sensitive confidential material and send it securely.
“To put it bluntly Japan has traditionally leaked like a sieve,” said Brad Williams, author of a book on Japanese intelligence policy and a professor at City University of Hong Kong.
Laws have been introduced to more severely punish intelligence leaks, but for now, Australia is likely to be forced to scrub any intelligence it passes to Japan for information gleaned from the Five Eyes network.

Prime ministers Kishida and Albanese also vowed more cooperation on energy security.
Japan is a major buyer of Australian gas and has made a series of big bets on hydrogen energy produced in Australia, as it tries to ease a lack of domestic energy production and dependence on fossil fuels.
“Japan imports 40 per cent of its LNG from Australia. So it’s very important for Japan to have a stable relationship with Australia, from the aspect of energy,” a Japanese official said ahead of the meeting.
Kishida also warned that Russia using nuclear weapons would be seen as an “act of hostility against humanity”, describing President Vladimir Putin’s sabre rattling as “deeply disturbing”.
“Russia’s act of threatening the use of nuclear weapons is a serious threat to the peace and security of the international community and absolutely unacceptable,” said Kishida, who leads the only country to have ever been hit with a nuclear bomb.


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Japan

Japan, Australia sign landmark security pact aimed at countering China’s military rise

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) and Japan’s Fumio Kishida pose with koalas during their visit to Kings Park in Perth on Saturday. Photo: Getty pool via AAP Image/dpa

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (second right) and Japan’s Fumio Kishida (second left) attend a meeting in Perth on Saturday. Photo: AAP/dpa

Japan could raise corporate taxes to fund defence budget but idea ‘dead on arrival’, analysts say

Visitors walk along one of the lanes filled with touristy shops and restaurants leading to Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto. Photo: AFP

Support for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration has sunk to a record low of 27.4 per cent, according to a recent poll. Photo: Kyodo via Reuters

Pedestrians in the popular electronics shopping area of Akihabara in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

A man walks past a screen displaying the Japanese yen exchange rate against foreign currencies in Tokyo on Monday. The yen fell against the US dollar to reach the upper 148 range. Photo: EPA-EFE

Japan and Australia to share intelligence on ‘China’s intentions’ in new security pact

Australian PM Anthony Albanese and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida. File photo: AP

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) poses with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (R) before their meeting at Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo, Japan on September 27. Photo: EPA-EFE/Pool/File

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a Quad leaders’ summit at the Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo on May 24, 2022. Photo: Pool via AP/File

The deep divide: Japan and China mark 50 years of ties, but tensions unlikely to ease, analysts say

A reception is held by the Chinese embassy in Japan to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 50th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in Tokyo on September 22, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka (left) talking with his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai during a visit to Beijing in September 1972. Photo: JIJI Press/AFP

A Chinese Navy ship spotted in Japan’s territorial waters near Yakushima and Kuchinoerabu islands in southwestern Japan earlier in September 2022. Photo: Japan’s Defence Ministry Joint Staff Office/AFP

People walking under a gate in Yokohama’s Chinatown area decorated with a red banner marking the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China as well as the 50th anniversary of the normalisation of Sino-Japanese relations. Photo: AFP

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Prime ministers Kishida and Albanese signed the accord that would allow the two countries’ military forces to train together in Northern Australia
Experts see the agreement as another step toward Tokyo joining the US-led Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance


Prime ministers Kishida and Albanese signed the accord that would allow the two countries’ military forces to train together in Northern Australia.


Japan, Australia sign landmark security pact aimed at countering China’s military rise

Prime ministers Kishida and Albanese signed the accord that would allow the two countries’ military forces to train together in Northern Australia Experts see the agreement as another step toward Tokyo joining the US-led Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance

Prime ministers Kishida and Albanese signed the accord that would allow the two countries’ military forces to train together in Northern Australia

Experts see the agreement as another step toward Tokyo joining the US-led Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance