Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade could join Australian and U.S. in training, including with Marine Rotational Force-Darwin (MRF-D), reads a statement following the annual Australia-Japan 2+2 meeting of their defense and foreign ministers in Queenscliff, Victoria on Thursday.
The two countries also will further cooperation between counterstrike capabilities that leverage Japan’s stand-off defense capability and Australia’s long-range strike capability, according to the Thursday joint statement.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong hosted their Japanese counterparts Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa for the 11th Australia-Japan Foreign and Defense Ministerial Consultations. In a joint statement, the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to Australia and Japan’s Special Strategic Partnership.
The ministers expressed their strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China Seas, according to the statement and discussed the recent activities by Chinese military assets in Japanese territory. The four ministers expressed concerns over recent developments in the South China Sea, including an intensification of China’s dangerous and coercive activities toward the Philippines, which have occurred with high frequency. “We opposed any coercive actions that could escalate tensions and undermine regional stability, including the militarisation of disputed features,” read the statement.
Along with calling for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues, the ministers condemned North Korea for its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, malicious cyber activities that fund its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs and increasing military cooperation with Russia, including North Korea’s export and Russia’s procurement of North Korean ballistic missiles that were used by Russia against Ukraine.
Both Australia and Japan announced a number of defense and security initiatives, including Australia participating for the first time in the U.S. – Japan exercise Orient Shield next year, enhancing civil maritime cooperation with the partners in the region, including support for the Philippine Coast Guard, expanding U.S.-Japan-Australia trilateral intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. They also talked about Japan joining with the U.S. and Australians for amphibious training.
“We have agreed to explore ways in which the Japanese Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade can participate in the marine rotation, US Marine rotations, which occur in Darwin every year,” said Marles in a joint press conference. “This is a really huge opportunity for our three defence forces to operate in an amphibious context.”
Japan’s ARDB has already been participating in the biennial U.S.-Australia joint exercise Talisman Sabre, which includes multinational participation, making their debut in the exercise serial in 2019. The three countries also carry out the trilateral annual Southern Jackaroo infantry exercise held in Australia, which involves MRF-D, the Australian Army and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, though the ARDB has not been involved in that serial with the JGSDF, instead dispatching troops from its infantry regiments for the exercise.
Deployment of the ARDB for overseas exercises in the past was constrained by the fact that the unit was still building up to its full brigade strength, the unit’s commitments to U.S. Marine Corps-JGSDF exercises such as the Iron Fist and Resolute Dragon serials and the need to keep one ARDB regiment in Japan for any contingencies. The ARDB stood up its third regiment on Apr. 1, which now allows it to establish a rotation of one regiment carrying out training (including overseas exercises), one regiment on maintenance and rest and one regiment as the ready deployable force.
Potential exercises the ARDB could join would be exercises such as Predator Run and Koolendong. It also could involve establishing a new trilateral exercise, however, MRF-D already has an extensive series of engagements both in Australia and Southeast Asia during its deployment.
The two countries will also enhance coordination around command and control. “There is already a very strong relationship between Australia’s Joint Operations Command and the Joint Operations Command which exists in Japan. Going forward, we have agreed out of today’s meeting that there will be liaison officers in each of those commands in each of our countries – that is, a Japanese liaison officer in Joint Operation Command here in Australia and an Australian liaison officer in Joint Operation Command in Japan,” said Marles.
Australia and Japan will further cooperate on counterstrike capabilities that leverage Japan’s stand-off defense capability and Australia’s long-range strike capability. In a Wednesday press conference following a meeting with Marles, Kihara said that Australia’s emphasis in its National Defence Strategy on acquiring long-range strike capabilities and Japan’s emphasis on acquiring counterattack capabilities using standoff weapons were both similar policies in the same directions despite the different wording and both countries believed it is important to develop common capabilities and to work on improving interoperability. The Japanese Defense Chief also stated that the cooperation likely would be regarding Tomahawk cruise missiles, which both countries are acquiring, “the timing of the development of capabilities is very similar, with the acquisition and operation of Tomahawks at similar times. Given that, I think it is natural that we will consider concrete cooperation,” said Kihara.
The joint statement also said that a maritime patrol aircraft collaboration activity between the quadrilateral alliance of Australia, Japan, India and the U.S will be held on the sidelines of the Royal Australian Navy’s multilateral Exercise Kakadu, which begins in early September.
