Fading US reliability deepens Australia, Japan ties

Closer security and economic bonds also come amid China's rise as a military power

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SYDNEY - Australia and Japan are tightening military and economic bonds as the region grows more volatile and long-time security guarantor the US demands allies spend more on defence.

Canberra's recent decision to buy 11 warships from a Japanese manufacturer is the clearest sign yet of the growing trust, enabling Tokyo to export cutting-edge weapons systems and share the related defence secrets for the first time.

The deal also means more investment in Australia as Japanese firms set up shop to build most of the ships.

The move comes as both nations boost their defence budgets to counter China's military rise, and respond to US President Donald Trump's pressure on allies to shoulder more responsibility for their own defence and swallow higher tariffs to access America's markets.

"In all but treaty language we are allies," Mr Kazuhiro Suzuki, Japan's Ambassador to Australia, said recently in Melbourne. The ship deal, he added, would create "major opportunities for collaboration" and economic spillovers.

The two countries set the stage for closer military ties through a 2023 Reciprocal Access Agreement - allowing troop deployments to each other's territory - Japan's first defence pact since its 1960 US alliance.

Tokyo has since signed similar agreements with Britain and the Philippines.

On Sept 5, the two nations will sign a pact on evacuating each other's citizens during third-country conflicts, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters after a meeting with the Australian foreign and defence ministers in Tokyo.

He did not elaborate on what "third-country conflicts" means in the context of the deal.