By Mina Pollmann
Contrary to popular belief, the trilateral security cooperation isn’t all about keeping China in check.
Japan’s cooperation with Australia, which began with much fanfare in 2006, has been given added momentum and impetus in recent years by the combined efforts of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. This is a significant development in the region’s security architecture, as Australia is only the second nation with which Japan has sought to build such a security relationship – just after the relationship established with the U.S. in 1952. At the launch event for a Stimson Center publication in Washington, D.C., experts weighed in on the origins and future of the Japan-Australia relationship.
As recently as 2010, James Schoff points out, it was the U.S.-Japan-South Korea security dialogue that Japan really prioritized. Back then, with North Korea’s nuclear test, the sinking of the Cheonan, and the shelling of Yeonpyong island, this trilateral structure was the more dynamic and clearly-defined security relationship. However, as the historical baggage began to weigh down Japan-South Korea cooperation, the U.S.-Japan-Australia security dialogue — which was based on “fuzzier premises,” and had a broader range of priorities and disconnected initiatives — began to gain importance in 2012.
Though this trilateral relationship is often talked of in terms of countering the rise of China, that is not the main purpose, Schoff argues. Even now, China’s role in spurring trilateral cooperation is something that Japan keeps bringing up, but the U.S. and Australia continue to resist. Instead, the trilateral relationship was driven by a policy change in Washington — and by Japan and Australia’s desire to keep the U.S. engaged in the region during times of uncertainty.
Read the full story at The Diplomat