By Robbin Laird
If one simply read this year’s Defence Strategic Review, the position of the current Australian government towards China would seem very clear:
“A large-scale conventional and non-conventional military build-up without strategic reassurance is contributing to the most challenging circumstances in our region for decades.
“Combined with rising tensions and reduced warning time for conflict, the risks of military escalation or miscalculation are rising.”
Lest you be confused, that is China they are talking about.
One would have expected a DSR with such language to recraft the ADF and to fund it appropriately. Well half of that is an accurate statement.
A key part of the effort associated with the DSR is expanded engagement with core allies, whether it by means of the AUKUS agreement or new ways of working with Japan or South Korea.
The expanded role of Australian bases and the involvement of both the United States and Japan are clearly being worked.
And the Defence Minister’s visit to Japan is clearly designed to do this as well.
For example, a Defence Connect, October 20, 2023 article underscored:
As part of the visit, the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister reinforced Japan’s central role as an “indispensable partner” to Australia during his conversations with his Japanese counterpart, Japanese Minister of Defense Kihara Minoru.
The two ministers officially welcomed the entry into force of the landmark Japan-Australia Reciprocal Access Agreement, transforming the bilateral defence cooperation and enhancing the interoperability of forces. The pair also discussed a number of recent milestones in the strategic partnership, including:
First applications of the Reciprocal Access Agreement last month in the mutual deployment exercises of F-35As, including for Exercise Bushido Guardian.
Live firing of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s surface-to-air and surface-to-ship missiles during Exercise Talisman Sabre using Australia’s training ranges.
Australian Defence Force (ADF) participation in Japan-United States exercises, Yama Sakura in November 2023 and Keen Edge in February 2024.
Progress under the JDSC to enhance the scope, objectives, and forms of enhanced operational cooperation.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, the Honourable Richard Marles, said, “Our growing strategic alignment contributes to shared security challenges in our region and is key to promoting an open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. This is my third visit to Japan as Deputy Prime Minister, demonstrating the importance I ascribe to the bilateral defence relationship.”
Additionally, the ministers celebrated the first-of-its-kind collaboration between the Australian Department of Defence, Mitsubishi Electric Australia, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation on cutting-edge laser technology to enhance the ADF’s surveillance capability and survivability of defence platforms.
“Japan is an indispensable partner and we have achieved much in 2023, including entry into force of the Reciprocal Access Agreement and lifting the complexity and sophistication of our operational cooperation. I look forward to progressing our shared ambition with my new counterpart Minister Kihara Minoru,” the Deputy Prime Minister added.
And new agreements are being worked between Australia and Japan.
For example, a 20 October 2020, Australian Department of Defence article underscores such an agreement:
Defence and Mitsubishi Electric Australia (MEA) have signed an agreement to develop and transition a cutting-edge laser capability for the Australian Defence Force to enhance surveillance and survivability of defence platforms.
The new capability – being developed by Defence’s Science and Technology Group – is being industrialised in partnership with MEA and Japanese industry Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO).
This collaboration combines over a decade of Defence Science and Technology Group’s laser technology development with MELCO’s proven ability to commercialise and deliver electro-optic systems for defence applications.
The agreement will enable Defence and MEA to collaborate and develop capabilities and prototypes using this technology. It will also create opportunities for MEA to access MELCO defence technologies of interest to the Australian Defence Force.
During this week’s Japan-Australia Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Tokyo, Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles and Japanese Minister of Defense, Kihara Minoru celebrated the first of its kind collaboration.
Quotes attributable to the Chief Defence Scientist, Professor Tanya Monro:
“This collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric Australia will enable cutting-edge laser technology developed by Australian defence scientists to be transformed into new technologies that protect our Australian Defence Force personnel.
“This will not only lift Australia’s capability, but deepen our science and technology collaboration with Japan.
“Maintaining a technological edge relies on Australia committing to working with partners on defence science and technology.
“We look forward to collaborating with Mitsubishi Electric Australia to deliver new capability, using technology developed by Defence, which enhances surveillance and survivability of defence platforms.”
One would then expect given this policy thrust which rests in part upon significant strategic redesign on Australian territory of how to leverage Western and Northern Australia to have seen the termination of the Chinese lease to manage the port of Darwin.
But as Peter Jennings has informed us, not so fast bucky.
Yet another review has defended the absurd 2015 Northern Territory decision to lease the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company for 99 years. The lease continues to dog successive federal governments and is undermining defence planning….
The review released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet last Friday points to a “robust regulatory system in place to manage risks to critical infrastructure”. Such is the alertness of our national security guardians that “Australians can have confidence that their safety will not be compromised”. The statement acknowledges “the importance of the Port of Darwin as a key piece of critical infrastructure” but the focus on risks to the “safety” of Australians moves the attention away from national security.
The bigger picture is clear: China is becoming militarily aggressive in our region. Since the lease of the Port of Darwin, Beijing illegally took over disputed territory in the South China Sea, building new military air bases and sea ports. Chinese military power projects much further south to the Indonesian archipelago. Routine Chinese air and naval patrols and intelligence-gathering ships now operate in Australian waters.
These developments make northern Australia much more strategically important. This is why the US Marine Corps and US Air Force presence in the north is growing, and why they are building up fuel and other stores. It is also why US Virginia -class submarines will operate out of our western navy base from 2027. And it is why Australia is developing plans for nuclear-powered submarines.
The Albanese government should have overturned the lease because we, and our key ally, the US, need that facility to expand and secure a larger military presence in the north.
Jennings has been one of the key Australian voices focused on the need to address China as an urgent threat, not as a distant problem.
And he has pointed out repeatedly, to do so needs commitment of resources, and creative policy energy to the problem.
Which raises the key problem of how the Australian Prime Minister will handle his upcoming visit to President Xi.
Jennings warns:
“The risk for Albanese is that the visit will make him look weaker on China in Australia by celebrating small concessions in trade and ignoring the big strategic changes sweeping the world.”
But at a minimum, the challenge is bring the different pieces together for a coherent reset of Australian policy towards China and to have the kind of “strategic imagination” which my friend the late Brendan Sargeant argued was necessary in this new phase of history.
And obviously, this Is not a challenge just facing Australia.
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