During his visit to Australia in April 1997, then prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto inaugurated annual summits between the Australian and Japanese prime ministers. Australia is willing to reciprocate Japan's interest in security dialogue and greater sharing of intelligence, both on a bilateral and a tripartite basis that includes the United States. The development of Threaten Missile Defenses (TMD) could open the way for practical Australian assistance with launch detection. When Australia's prime minister John Howard next visits Japan, it might be timely for their joint statement to draw attention to common concerns about the South China Sea.
Australia and Japan have congruent strategic interests in the maintenance of a balance of power in East Asia, in maritime passage, and in resisting if China asserts hegemony. If the northern and southern anchors of the first island chain begin to cooperate more closely, they can help to ensure that China does not succeed in turning the South China Sea into a Chinese lake.
1 Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands (not to be confused with the Coco islands off Burma) are Australian territories in the Indian Ocean.
2 Thomas-Durell Young, "Enhancing" the Australian-U.S. Defense Relationship： A Guide to U.S. Policy, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, November 1977, p.19
3 Yang Razali Kassim, "Uncertainties still cloud FPDA", Business Times (Singapore) 24 February 1999.
4 By seeking to represent the global balance as irrelevant for Australia, the 1986 Dibb defense review was forced to define the level of threat down to that of Indonesian fishing boats in order to justify force structure. By inventing an enemy, the review risked creating one. In fact, Indonesia has had neither the capability nor the intention to invade Australia. Indonesia has been a threat to Australian security only when its domestic weakness has invited the attention of hostile foreign powers.
5 Richard Bens, "Wealth, Power, and Instability： East Asia and the United States after the Cold War", in Michael E Brown, et. al., eds. East Asian Security, 1996, p.55
