Japan to join major military exercise
SYDNEY — Japan will join a major U.S.-Australian military exercise for the first time in a sign of growing security links between the three countries as tensions fester over China’s island building in the South China Sea.
While only 40 Japanese officers and soldiers will take part in drills involving 30,000 U.S. and Australian troops in early July, experts said the move showed how Washington wanted to foster cooperation among its security allies in Asia.
The Talisman Saber biennial exercises, to be held in locations around Australia, will encompass maritime operations, amphibious landings, special forces tactics and urban warfare.
“I think the U.S. is trying to get its allies to do more,” said Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. “There is an obvious symmetry between Japan as the upper anchor of the Western Pacific alliance and … Australia as the southern anchor.”
All three nations have said they were concerned about freedom of movement through the seas and air in the disputed South China Sea, where China is creating seven artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, a vital shipping corridor.
Some security experts say China might impose air and sea restrictions in the Spratlys once it completes construction work that includes at least one military airstrip. China has said it had every right to set up an Air Defense Identification Zone but that current conditions did not warrant one.
The Japanese personnel will embed with U.S. forces while 500 New Zealand troops will join Australian contingents, according to the Australian Defense Force website.
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani rebuffed suggestions the exercises were aimed at China, telling Reuters that Japan simply wanted to improve military cooperation with the United States and Australia.
Also on Monday, the leaders of Japan and Malaysia agreed to bolster security ties and start talks on transfers of defense equipment and technology, as both separately wrangle with China over territorial spats.
Malaysia is the first Southeast Asian country with which Japan has launched negotiations on such cooperation, said Katsunobu Kato, Japanese deputy chief cabinet secretary.
Sino-Japanese ties have been plagued by a dispute over a group of tiny East China Sea islets. China also claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in shipborne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.
China said on Monday it had lodged a complaint with the United States over a U.S. spy plane that flew over parts of the disputed South China Sea in a diplomatic row that has fueled tension between the world’s two largest economies.
China last week said it was “strongly dissatisfied” after a U.S. spy plane flew over areas near the reefs, with both sides accusing each other of stoking instability. Security cooperation between Canberra and Tokyo has already flourished under Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Shinzo Abe, with Japan seen as the front-runner to win a contract to supply next-generation submarines to the Australian navy. U.S. commanders have publicly supported such a tie-up.
Winning the submarine deal would be a big boost for Japan’s defense industry and potentially pave the way for the sale of advanced Japanese weapons to countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, experts have said.
Australia also hopes to sign a deal with Japan this year that would smooth the passage of military personnel into one another’s country for joint exercises, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported over the weekend.
Deals such as this would likely become more common as Mr. Abbott and Mr. Abe push to cement the security ties they have fostered before they leave office, said the Lowy Institute’s Mr. Graham.