Japanese troops in Top End sends clear message to China

While stating that it was Trump’s prerogative to choose his defence secretary, Austin stressed the enormous responsibility of the role, saying that it involves making “life-and-death decisions on a near daily basis” and oversight of 2.7 million military personnel.

Austin also sought to reassure Australians about the future of AUKUS, saying he was confident that US shipyards could sufficiently boost production levels to allow the sale of at least three Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the 2030s.

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“We recognise that this is a generational capability that will make a significant difference in promoting security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

He added: “We expect that Japan will join AUKUS pillar II [which involves collaboration on advanced military technologies] at some point in the not-too-distant future.”

Nakatani said Japan was facing an “extremely severe” strategic environment, with a missile attack on the nation from a hostile country such as North Korea being a “real possibility”.

Under the set of agreements struck on Sunday, Japan’s amphibious rapid deployment brigade will begin integrating hundreds of troops with the US Marines and Australian forces in Darwin annually from next year.

Marles said the move sent “a very important statement to the region and to the world about the commitment that our three countries have in working with each other”.

He added that the three nations were “looking at every opportunity that we can find to participate in each other’s exercises within the region”.

Australian troops will also be invited to join the Japan-United States Bilateral Information Analysis Cell, which involves the joint processing of military intelligence data.

The three nations also announced a new commitment to consult each other on regional security issues and contingencies including natural disasters and military conflagrations.

While not constituting a legally binding treaty, it represents a significant deepening of the three-way partnership.

Marles said the compact “provides a substance and a structure to the trilateral meeting of our three countries which has not been there before, and it represents the ambition that all of us have about taking this architecture of our three countries even further”.

Jennifer Parker, a military expert at the Australian National University, said Sunday’s announcements represented the culmination of a “remarkable evolution” in Australia-Japan defence ties over the past decade.

Australia, Japan, the US and India – the four members of the Quad partnership – also announced they would boost the sharing of maritime surveillance information.

“Taken together, this is major progress, and it will help ensure a more stable and prosperous region,” Austin said.

Marles confirmed the Mogami-class warship manufactured by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had been shortlisted to win a contract to build 11 general-purpose frigates for the Australian navy.

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Mitsubishi is competing against Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems after bids by Spain’s Navantia and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding failed to make the final cut.

Euan Black, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said it was clear that “Australia and Japan now consider each other to be their second-closest defence partners”.