ASPI’s Senior Analyst Malcolm Davis says the Reciprocal Access Agreement between Australia and Japan, which would allow military forces from the two countries to operate from each other’s territories, is a “huge step forward”.
It comes as a planned virtual meeting between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is scheduled for this week to sign a defence agreement.
“It establishes the procedures and the regulations and the practices for us undertaking a closer defence relationship,” Mr Davis told Sky News host Chris Smith.
“And that’s really key, it’s the closer defence relationship, the building of closer ties within the region, for us to be able to work as partners in particular against the context of a rising, assertive China that we have to deter and we have to respond to.
“So this agreement is really important for that reason alone.”
