2016 DEFENCE WHITE PAPER

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CHAPTER FIVE: POSITIONING DEFENCE FOR TOMORROW’S CHALLENGES
North Asia
5.59 Japan is a major power in North Asia with advanced military forces
and an increasingly active approach to regional security. Australia and
Japan have a deep and broad relationship. We share democratic values,
have been close economic partners for decades and more recently we
have become close strategic partners. We each have alliances with the
United States and we have common strategic interests in secure and
free-flowing trade routes, a stable Indo-Pacific region and a rules-based
global order. We welcome the Japanese Government’s recent decision
to adopt policies that will enable it to contribute more directly to
regional and global security and stability.
SECTION TWO CAPABILITY
5.60 Australia has a growing security relationship with Japan. In recent
years we have signed treaty-level agreements on cooperation in
defence science and technology, information sharing and logistics
support. These agreements provide the basis for further developing our
defence cooperation based on the 2007 Joint Declaration on Security
Cooperation.
5.61 Australia and Japan are implementing a broad range of initiatives to
further enhance practical defence cooperation. These initiatives will
strengthen defence cooperation in a number of areas including: increased
training and exercises between all three Services, increased personnel
exchanges, deepening cooperation on humanitarian assistance and
disaster relief, maritime security, peacekeeping, capacity building
and increasing trilateral cooperation with our common ally the United
States. We will enhance strategic dialogue between Australia and Japan,
which includes joint Defence and Foreign Affairs 2+2 dialogue held
at Ministerial level, as well as senior officials’ level dialogue. We will
continue to explore opportunities to expand cooperation with Japan in
areas such as intelligence, developing common capabilities like the Joint
Strike Fighter, air and missile defence and maritime warfare technologies.