Japan, Australia Agree to Boost Collective Deterrence

Tokyo, Sept. 5 (Jiji Press)--Foreign and defense ministers from Japan and Australia Thursday agreed to strengthen the two countries' collective deterrence in response to China's increasing military activities.

The two countries are committed to "coordinating our national security policies more closely than ever before, including in collaboration with the United States," the ministers said in a joint statement issued after a so-called "two-plus-two" security meeting in a suburb of Melbourne in southeastern Australia.

The statement said the ministers welcome planned reciprocal exchanges of liaison officers between the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the Australian military, in line with the launch in Japan next spring of a joint operations command that oversees the Ground, Maritime and Air SDF.

A Japanese liaison officer from the Defense Ministry's Joint Staff will be first sent to the Australian Defense Force's Headquarters Joint Operations Command in November this year.

The ministers agreed that the SDF and the Australian military will expand joint exercises by utilizing the bilateral reciprocal access agreement that facilitates their visits to each other's country.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]