JAPAN is set to join the main biennial US-Australia military drill for the first time during which its troops are expected to take part in large amphibious assault exercises in Queensland that are sure to anger Beijing.
While Australia’s defence forces refused to confirm Japan would participate in the huge Talisman Sabre exercise, the US military happily confirmed an invitation had been issued.
The Australian understands Japan will send a contingent of about 30 officers and troops to exercises that have focused on storming “enemy-held” beaches.
John Lee, a University of Sydney China specialist, said Japan’s participation was part of a trend towards co-operation among Asia-Pacific nations. However, this would not go down well in Beijing, which is immersed in a dispute with Tokyo after claiming the Japanese-controlled Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands.
As many as 30,000 troops will be involved in Talisman Sabre, which has featured an amphibious and parachute assault involving helicopters, hovercraft and fighter jets. The exercise could easily be construed as a dry run for the recapture of an island seized by a foreign power.
Japan, and other nations bordering the South China Sea are at loggerheads with China in claims over rocks, islands and outcrops amid Beijing’s expanding assertiveness in the region.
Japan has dramatically stepped up its training with the US as the dispute has deepened over the Senkaku islands (known by Beijing as the Diaoyu islands) and is understood to welcome Talisman Sabre as a chance to take that a step further.
University of NSW defence scholar Alan Dupont, a non-resident fellow of the Lowy Institute, said Japan joining Talisman Sabre would be only the beginning of trilateral military co-operation between Australia, Japan and the US.
“To bring another country into it is quite significant and signals that Japan has moved to the top echelon of Australia’s defence partners,” Professor Dupont said.
“I doubt very much whether China is going to comment because it is being confronted with the reality of the trilateral defence dialogue for some time.
“But privately I have no doubt that Beijing and the (People’s Liberation Army) would be viewing this with some concern.
“They are (also) not interested in seeing closer military co-operation between the US, Japan and Australia because it plays to their fear, and some would say paranoia, of being encircled by other powers.”
He said the exercise would be increasingly important for Australia as it brought its landing helicopter docks, or amphibious assault ships, to readiness.
Professor Lee said the increased co-operation between the three nations was something the “region needs because it demonstrates that the alliance system is holding up and that, I think, is essential for stability”.
“The broader region — outside China and South Korea — would be fairly supportive of trilateral exercises between the US, Australia and Japan.”
Last month Australia hosted a small contingent of PLA soldiers for a survival exercise in the Northern Territory with US troops, but it was a very small exercise and not combat-focused.
