{"id":21594,"date":"2020-11-17T19:52:12","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T16:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/japan-and-australia-reach-breakthrough-security-pact-over-disputed-south-china-sea\/21594\/"},"modified":"2020-11-17T19:52:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T16:52:12","slug":"japan-and-australia-reach-breakthrough-security-pact-over-disputed-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/japan-and-australia-reach-breakthrough-security-pact-over-disputed-south-china-sea\/21594\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan and Australia Reach Breakthrough Security Pact Over Disputed South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Ju-min Park TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) \u2013 Japan and Australia agreed on a breakthrough defense pact on Tuesday allowing reciprocal visits for training and operations, and voiced concern over the <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/tag\/south-china-sea-dispute\/\">disputed South China Sea<\/a>, where China is extending its military influence.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>It is Japan\u2019s first agreement covering foreign military presence on its soil since a status of forces agreement in 1960 that allowed the United States to base warships, jets and troops in Japan as part of an alliance that Washington describes as the bedrock of regional security.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The Reciprocal Access Agreement strengthens defense ties between the two U.S. allies at a time when China is asserting its role in the region and the United States is going through a messy leadership transition.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The pact allows Japanese and Australian troops to visit each other\u2019s countries and conduct training and joint operations and was agreed in principle by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, who is visiting Tokyo.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hereby announce that we reached agreement in principle on a reciprocal access agreement, which had been negotiated to elevate security and defense cooperation between Japan and Australia to a new level,\u201d Suga told a joint news conference.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The pact \u201cestablishes streamlined arrangements to support the deployment of defense forces more quickly and with less administration,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The two sides also agreed on the need for a framework to allow Japanese military to protect Australian forces if needed, the joint statement said.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Since mid-August, the United States has repeatedly riled China by sending warships to the South China Sea and has <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/u-s-hands-out-first-sanctions-in-south-china-sea-dispute\/\">blacklisted<\/a> 24 Chinese entities over their involvement in building and militarizing artificial islands there.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>China said it was conducting military training in the South China Sea from Tuesday through the end of November.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The legacy of Japan\u2019s invasion and occupation of parts of China in World War Two still haunts relations, and the two sides dispute ownership of islands in the East China Sea.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Australia\u2019s relations with China have deteriorated after Australian allegations of Chinese meddling in its affairs and calls for an international inquiry into the source of the coronavirus, first identified in China almost a year ago.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The two leaders expressed their worries about \u201crecent negative developments and serious incidents in the South China Sea, including militarisation of disputed features, dangerous coercive use of coast guard vessels,\u201d their statement said.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Japan and Australia said they also shared concerns about the East China Sea and the former British colony of Hong Kong where China has imposed a strict new national security law, clamping down on dissent.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>They also agreed to deepen their ties in 5G networks technology, and undersea cables and resource security for critical minerals supply.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrade should never be used as a tool to apply political pressure,\u201d Suga and Morrison said. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Kirsty Needham, writing by Ju-min Park; editing by Ed Osmond, Philippa Fletcher and Nick Macfie)<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><em>(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Ju-min Park TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) \u2013 Japan and Australia agreed on a breakthrough defense pact on Tuesday allowing reciprocal visits for training and operations, and voiced concern over the disputed South China Sea, where China is extending its military influence. It is Japan\u2019s first agreement covering foreign military presence on &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[904,6896,95,4860,160,2747,2393,997,54,1623],"class_list":["post-21594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-australia","tag-breakthrough","tag-china","tag-disputed","tag-japan","tag-pact","tag-reach","tag-sea","tag-security","tag-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/21595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}