Felix the Cat
12-14-2005, 10:36 AM
US keen on Japanese ties with Australia (http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17478996^5002142,00.html)
IT was more than coincidence that the new US-Japan-Australian security dialogue happened in Tokyo the week agreement was reached on the redistribution of American base facilities on Okinawa.
The Okinawa bases argument was the last impediment to agreement on US-Japan security alliance "transformation". As a corollary of that modernisation, the Americans want more bilateral engagement between Tokyo and Washington's other alliance partners in the region.
Tom Schieffer, the US ambassador to Japan and formerly its envoy in Canberra, recently made clear the principal purpose of the new trilateral is get the Japanese and Australians co-operating on security questions.
"On strategic issues, there is no reason why Japan and Australia can't have the same kind of close relationship with each other as they do with the US," said Schieffer. "That's why we're sitting down to see where our common interests lie -- the more these people could talk to each other the better."
For the current Australian Government and its most recent predecessor, there is a certain inevitability about the bilateral security development, but Japan has been reluctant until now to move down that path.
That's in large part because the maintenance of Japan's unique status in Asia as a declared non-combatant nation rests on the American security guarantee. Suggestions that Japanese forces might engage in military training, for instance with Australia or anyone else but the Americans, are firmly rebuffed.
On the other hand, the Japanese are keen participants in international peacekeeping operations and increasingly involved in regional initiatives against WMD proliferation, international terrorism and piracy.
That has brought the Japan Self-Defence Forces and coast guard into increasingly frequent contact with the Australian military.
The Australians are providing armed security for Japanese military engineers in southern Iraq and Japan made a significant commitment to the Australian-led UN mission to secure East Timor in 1999.
Japan and Australia are also core participants in the Proliferation Security Initiative, an international naval co-operation aimed directly at North Korea.
But the US has grown impatient on the core military matters and this year has put the Japanese under firm pressure. There is a new sense of urgency in Washington about "balancing" China's ambition to become a regional superpower and its rapid expansion of influence in East Asia. Immediately before the Okinawa bases issue was resolved, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld excluded Japan from his north-east Asia tour and his under-secretary for the Asia-Pacific, Richard Lawless, warned Tokyo "we no longer have the luxury of interminable dialogue about parochial issues".
Since the bases agreement allowed Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and their Japanese counterparts to sign off a report setting out the main areas of alliance transformation, the Defence Secretary has repeatedly described the Washington document as an "agreement" that can't be undone.
That is discomfiting for the Koizumi Government. It still has a political problem on Okinawa where local feeling against the bases runs high, and is moving cautiously on the constitutional revision necessary to fully implement the upgraded alliance. Japan wants the Washington document to be seen as a negotiating platform.
But after two years of delay and distraction, the Japan-American alliance is getting full-focus attention from Washington and that has important ramifications for Australia's defence planners.
They are not all comfortable ramifications for the Australians, enthusiastically engaged with China's economic boom and working hard at the diplomatic relationship.
China's ambassador to Tokyo Wang Yi recently told journalists that Beijing considered refurbishment of the US-Japan alliance a matter between those countries. "It would only be a problem if this was directed at a third country."
But, of course, it is. Robin Lim, an expert on military alliances formerly of the Office of National Assessments, points out: "For the US, the main strategic benefit of all its East Asian alliances is as points of geo-strategic pressure on China."
Australia is the southern anchor-point of the US alliance network and the development of direct security co-operation between Australia and Japan, China's only regional rival, could only heighten Beijing's suspicion: especially when it's promoted by Washington.
In fact, says the Lowy Institute's international security expert Alan Dupont, Australia may be the only country in the region with which Japan can establish a robust security relationship within the limitations of its national constitution.
On the positive side there are shared political values, economic inter-dependency and a solid and strengthening diplomatic relationship. On the negative side, says Dupont, the Japanese face an antagonistic South Korea and a "residue of historical animosity" elsewhere in East Asia. US allies in South-East Asia are reluctant to engage in bilateral security co-operation with the Japanese. The two defence forces are interoperable with Americans and, thus, potentially with one another. They have similar levels of military technology and proficiencies, though the Japanese lack the "real world" operational experience of Australian forces.
However, Japan is now travelling fast down a path that Australia has not yet decided to take: ballistic missile defence. The final step to interoperable BMD systems is perhaps the most significant aspect of the Washington agreement. The proposition Japan might maintain an independent missile shield, always operationally unrealistic but politically useful, has been quietly laid to rest.
Japan has started operating the common sea-based BMD platform, Aegis combat system-equipped air warfare destroyers, and is working with the Americans on development of interceptor missiles. Under the Washington agreement, Americans will deploy their X-band anti-missile radar system in Japan, share information and co-ordinate responses with the Japanese. The Japanese and US Pacific BMD systems, though yet unproved, will be closely meshed.
The Australians, so far committed only to Aegis-equipped air destroyers, have defence scientists observing BMD development in the US and will be closely watching.
IT was more than coincidence that the new US-Japan-Australian security dialogue happened in Tokyo the week agreement was reached on the redistribution of American base facilities on Okinawa.
The Okinawa bases argument was the last impediment to agreement on US-Japan security alliance "transformation". As a corollary of that modernisation, the Americans want more bilateral engagement between Tokyo and Washington's other alliance partners in the region.
Tom Schieffer, the US ambassador to Japan and formerly its envoy in Canberra, recently made clear the principal purpose of the new trilateral is get the Japanese and Australians co-operating on security questions.
"On strategic issues, there is no reason why Japan and Australia can't have the same kind of close relationship with each other as they do with the US," said Schieffer. "That's why we're sitting down to see where our common interests lie -- the more these people could talk to each other the better."
For the current Australian Government and its most recent predecessor, there is a certain inevitability about the bilateral security development, but Japan has been reluctant until now to move down that path.
That's in large part because the maintenance of Japan's unique status in Asia as a declared non-combatant nation rests on the American security guarantee. Suggestions that Japanese forces might engage in military training, for instance with Australia or anyone else but the Americans, are firmly rebuffed.
On the other hand, the Japanese are keen participants in international peacekeeping operations and increasingly involved in regional initiatives against WMD proliferation, international terrorism and piracy.
That has brought the Japan Self-Defence Forces and coast guard into increasingly frequent contact with the Australian military.
The Australians are providing armed security for Japanese military engineers in southern Iraq and Japan made a significant commitment to the Australian-led UN mission to secure East Timor in 1999.
Japan and Australia are also core participants in the Proliferation Security Initiative, an international naval co-operation aimed directly at North Korea.
But the US has grown impatient on the core military matters and this year has put the Japanese under firm pressure. There is a new sense of urgency in Washington about "balancing" China's ambition to become a regional superpower and its rapid expansion of influence in East Asia. Immediately before the Okinawa bases issue was resolved, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld excluded Japan from his north-east Asia tour and his under-secretary for the Asia-Pacific, Richard Lawless, warned Tokyo "we no longer have the luxury of interminable dialogue about parochial issues".
Since the bases agreement allowed Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and their Japanese counterparts to sign off a report setting out the main areas of alliance transformation, the Defence Secretary has repeatedly described the Washington document as an "agreement" that can't be undone.
That is discomfiting for the Koizumi Government. It still has a political problem on Okinawa where local feeling against the bases runs high, and is moving cautiously on the constitutional revision necessary to fully implement the upgraded alliance. Japan wants the Washington document to be seen as a negotiating platform.
But after two years of delay and distraction, the Japan-American alliance is getting full-focus attention from Washington and that has important ramifications for Australia's defence planners.
They are not all comfortable ramifications for the Australians, enthusiastically engaged with China's economic boom and working hard at the diplomatic relationship.
China's ambassador to Tokyo Wang Yi recently told journalists that Beijing considered refurbishment of the US-Japan alliance a matter between those countries. "It would only be a problem if this was directed at a third country."
But, of course, it is. Robin Lim, an expert on military alliances formerly of the Office of National Assessments, points out: "For the US, the main strategic benefit of all its East Asian alliances is as points of geo-strategic pressure on China."
Australia is the southern anchor-point of the US alliance network and the development of direct security co-operation between Australia and Japan, China's only regional rival, could only heighten Beijing's suspicion: especially when it's promoted by Washington.
In fact, says the Lowy Institute's international security expert Alan Dupont, Australia may be the only country in the region with which Japan can establish a robust security relationship within the limitations of its national constitution.
On the positive side there are shared political values, economic inter-dependency and a solid and strengthening diplomatic relationship. On the negative side, says Dupont, the Japanese face an antagonistic South Korea and a "residue of historical animosity" elsewhere in East Asia. US allies in South-East Asia are reluctant to engage in bilateral security co-operation with the Japanese. The two defence forces are interoperable with Americans and, thus, potentially with one another. They have similar levels of military technology and proficiencies, though the Japanese lack the "real world" operational experience of Australian forces.
However, Japan is now travelling fast down a path that Australia has not yet decided to take: ballistic missile defence. The final step to interoperable BMD systems is perhaps the most significant aspect of the Washington agreement. The proposition Japan might maintain an independent missile shield, always operationally unrealistic but politically useful, has been quietly laid to rest.
Japan has started operating the common sea-based BMD platform, Aegis combat system-equipped air warfare destroyers, and is working with the Americans on development of interceptor missiles. Under the Washington agreement, Americans will deploy their X-band anti-missile radar system in Japan, share information and co-ordinate responses with the Japanese. The Japanese and US Pacific BMD systems, though yet unproved, will be closely meshed.
The Australians, so far committed only to Aegis-equipped air destroyers, have defence scientists observing BMD development in the US and will be closely watching.