Australia performed “condolence diplomacy” throughout the state funeral of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on September 27. On the identical day, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio held a summit assembly with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Kishida additionally held an off-the-cuff assembly with Albanese in addition to three former Australian prime ministers, John Howard, Tony Abbott, and Malcolm Turnbull, who had visited Japan to attend the state funeral.
“I introduced with me three former prime ministers right here as an indication of respect… of the importance of the connection between Australia and Japan” Albanese mentioned in Tokyo.
Abbott described Abe as a “finest good friend of Australia” and Turnbull famous that “We mourn Shinzo Abe [sic] as a good friend, however the world will miss his knowledge.” Albanese paid tribute to Abe as a “true chief and true good friend of Australia.”
The bipartisan delegation symbolizes the shut bilateral relationship solid by Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister. Certainly, throughout the Abe administration, the Australia-Japan relationship developed to the extent of a so-called “quasi-alliance” and a “particular strategic partnership” within the altering international and regional safety surroundings.
In a letter to Nikkei Asia on October 2, Howard wrote that “I used to be privileged to work with him as a fellow prime minister over the past two years of my time period in workplace.” Describing Abe as somebody “who displayed statesmanship and braveness,” Howard added that the late prime minister “will lengthy be remembered in Australia not solely as an ideal Japanese chief, however as a person who did a lot to strengthen the friendship between the 2 nations.”
In March 2007, Abe and Howard introduced the Australia-Japan Joint Declaration on Safety Cooperation (JDSC) to additional bilateral safety cooperation. The JDSC was an end result of bilateral safety cooperation in post-conflict peace operations in Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and Iraq, and it grew to become a basis for the bilateral strategic community within the age of the rising China.
As center powers, each Japan and Australia have been in a troublesome place of balancing between the decline of the US and the rise of China within the technique of a worldwide energy transition. Each international locations are U.S. allies however have benefited from China’s rising economic system, particularly after the worldwide monetary disaster of 2007-08. Japan was the most important commerce companion of Australia from 1967 to 2009, till China surpassed Japan in 2010. China has additionally been one in every of Japan’s high commerce companions, and therefore the 2 nations’ financial ties can’t be ignored regardless of the China-U.S. strategic rivalry. The China issue has been one of many main points for each Tokyo and Canberra, and Abe and successive Australian prime ministers have labored collectively to steadiness between Washington and Beijing.
In 2016, the management change from Barack Obama to Donald Trump in the US influenced policymaking processes in Tokyo and Canberra. Whereas Obama had adopted a “rebalance to Asia” technique, Trump initially prompt that the US ought to contemplate withdrawing U.S. forces from Asia, particularly South Korea and Japan. Alongside Trump’s “fire-and-fury” rhetoric towards North Korea, Tokyo was confronted with two alliance dilemmas – worry of entrapment and worry of abandonment – throughout the Trump administration. The shared alarm attributable to Trump’s insurance policies incentivized nearer cooperation between Japan and Australia. Whereas reinvigorating the Japan-U.S. navy alliance, Abe managed to develop and keep a “particular strategic partnership” with Australia.
The Japanese and Australian governments have continued to strengthen their particular strategic partnership throughout the administration of President Joe Biden. Biden’s diplomatic model has been extra snug each for Tokyo and Canberra in comparison with his predecessor’s. The Biden administration has taken a hardline stance on Beijing by way of human rights points, and each Tokyo and Canberra have supported the stance of the U.S. authorities. As key U.S. allies, each Japan and Australia have been supportive of the Indo-Pacific Financial Framework prompt by Biden.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February turned out to be one other alternative to strengthen the Australia-Japan strategic partnership and the quadrilateral protection ties between Japan, Australia, India, and the US. Throughout a world vitality assembly held in Sydney in July, each Australia and the US agreed on growing the provision of liquefied pure gasoline to Japan within the face of vitality shortages as a result of affect of the struggle.
Strategically, Abe contributed to the formation of a safety community primarily based on the Japan-U.S. alliance within the Asia-Pacific area. Abe was the initiator of the “quadrilateral safety dialogue” (Quad) comprising Australia, India, Japan, and the US. The Quad was initially proposed and initiated by Abe in 2007 throughout his first time period as prime minister, and it was revived and formulated throughout his second time period. Each Tokyo and Canberra have strengthened safety ties by the Quad framework over time. Previous to the funeral, Albanese advised Kishida that “he [Abe] was very properly revered. And as a world statesperson, it’s clear that the Quad Leaders’ dialogue wouldn’t have occurred with out his management.”
Equally, Abe was an initiator and proponent of Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) imaginative and prescient, which initially stems from his speech on the Sixth Tokyo Worldwide Convention on African Improvement held in Kenya in August 2016. Understandably, the Quad counterparts have supported Abe’s FOIP imaginative and prescient, and the U.S. authorities adopted the Indo-Pacific Technique throughout the Trump administration. Australia has likewise regarded the Indo-Pacific area as a strategically vital sphere. Each Japan and Australia are chargeable for the peace and safety of the Indo-Pacific area – not solely as quasi-allies or mutual U.S. allies but in addition as democratic leaders and center powers within the area.
The Australia-Japan financial and commerce partnership has at all times been a key issue for the bilateral friendship. Doubtless, the financial partnership has been a cornerstone for the bilateral relationship because the conclusion of the 1957 Japan-Australia Commerce Settlement throughout the administration of Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke and Prime Minister Robert Menzies. Abe and Abbott signed an Financial Partnership Settlement in July 2014 which got here into pressure in January 2015.
Shortly thereafter, each international locations pursued the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership even after the Trump administration left the deal. As regional financial center powers, each Abe and Turnbull took management to make sure the signing the Complete and Progressive Settlement for Trans-Pacific Partnership in January 2018, which entered into pressure in December of that yr.
Additionally, each governments signed off the Regional Complete Financial Partnership in November 2020, which got here into pressure in January of this yr. Primarily based on the strong financial partnership, each governments have agreed on additional cooperation within the area of carbon impartial and renewable vitality. Notably, Albanese, who pledged to make Australia a “renewable superpower,” plans to bolster carbon impartial collaboration with Japan, together with the rising Australia-Japan hydrogen provide chain.
Each Tokyo and Canberra took a bilateral initiative for the Worldwide Fee on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, which developed into the Non-Proliferation Disarmament Initiative, a multilateral framework for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Each Kishida and Albanese are motivated to make diplomatic contributions to facilitating the transfer towards a world with out nuclear weapons. Nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation is predicted to play a key function on the G-7 Hiroshima Summit to be held in Could 2023.
In sum, the Japan-Australia particular strategic partnership was established throughout the Abe interval, and it’ll stay important, as demonstrated by the Australia’s incumbent and former prime ministers’ “condolence diplomacy.”
The bilateral quasi-alliance was upgraded by the JDSC, Japan’s Peace and Safety Laws, the revised Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Settlement, and the Reciprocal Entry Settlement. Australia’s next-generation submarine deal (for which Japan unsuccessfully bid) and the whaling subject have been thorny issues, however they haven’t essentially affected the particular strategic partnership over the long run.