8chan/8kun QResearch AUSTRALIA Posts (1)
#15325260 at 2022-01-07 09:03:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #20 - INSURGENCY Edition
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Analysts said the agreement, which has greatly promoted Japan and Australia's military alliance, also reflects Japan's calculations on getting rid of the status of "abnormal" state and Australia's willingness to win allies over for the US.
The RAA is one of the careful peripheral breakthroughs Japan has been making to prepare for revising its constitution, following the act of lifting of the ban on collective self-defense in 2016, Zhou Yongsheng, a professor in the Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
"Unlike the Quad which cannot enable frequent mutual military visits, the RAA will expand forces of Japan to the South Pacific region and promote the full coverage of Japan's Indo-Pacific Strategy," Zhou said.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno was cited by the Japan Times in a report on the RAA as saying that "We share with Australia the basic values of freedom and democracy" and during their virtual meeting on Thursday, Kishida planned to discuss matters of mutual concern, including national security, the economy and regional affairs, in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation toward a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University, said that from Morrison visiting Japan under COVID-19, the $717 million defense deal with South Korea to the security cooperation treaty with Japan, Australia is playing a greater role in winning regional allies over for the US, especially Japan and South Korea, in its Indo-Pacific Strategy.
Chen noted that by signing the RAA, the strategic and military cooperation between Japan and Australia is becoming more aggressive, which will increase regional tensions and possibilities of military confrontations, bringing danger and instability to the region.
The expert also noted that under the Morrison government, China-Australia relations had been in the lowest ebb while Australia is still hyping the "China threat" and taking the wrong strategy of attacking China, which could further inflame tensions.
Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an anti-China hawk think tank in Australia, said in an article released on Wednesday that with the specifics agreed on how Japan and Australia can access to each other's military facilities, secure port access, landing rights, logistics support, security arrangements and legal regimes, there will be an expansion of practical military cooperation. And the deeper defense ties also send a strong message to China.
Song noted that the US, Australia and Japan are taking a chance that no matter how much trouble they have made, no attack would be brought to their own territory, which is totally wrong, Song said. They should know that if they touch China's bottom line - either on the question of the island of Taiwan or bring harm to China's territory - countermeasures will follow.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1245215.shtml