Declaring Australia would not be deterred by China’s threats, the deputy prime minister headed to Tokyo pledging to conduct more operations with Japan. |EXCLUSIVE by Eryk Bagshaw and Katina Curtis
“We’re not going to be deterred from doing that in the future,” he said. “It obviously directly goes to our national security. Most of our traffic traverses that body of water.”
“What this does is open the door to a much greater tempo of operational engagement,” the deputy prime minister said.The deepening relationship between Tokyo and Canberra has triggered blowback from Beijing. China’s Foreign Ministry has accused Japan, along with Australia and the US, of smearing its human rights record while “baselessly” building up its military in response to a perceived Chinese threat.
By the end of the meeting, which went overtime, both sides were prepared to begin discussing future dialogue, signalling defence engagement may be the path via which other ministries – including foreign affairs and trade – resume having direct conversations that have been frozen for almost three years.
Marles said other regional ministers at the Shangri-La security conference had reacted positively to the meeting. “I think that there was a general feeling that this was returning dialogue to the Australia-China relationship,” he said.
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