SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida agreed on Saturday (Oct 22) to strengthen security ties between the two US allies amid China’s push for greater influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

At the annual Australia-Japan Leaders’ Meeting, held in the Western Australia capital Perth, the two signed a security cooperation agreement updating a 2007 pact, to respond to a changed regional security environment.

As part of the bolstered security partnership, Albanese said Japan’s military would train and exercise in northern Australia alongside Australian Defence Force personnel.

In their fourth summit since Albanese took office in May, they said the agreement would serve “as a compass” for security cooperation for the next decade. They agreed to consult and study responses to emergencies that could affect regional security.

Albanese and Kishida also discussed climate change, expressing support for a regional transition to net zero carbon emissions and boosting investment in clean energy tech.

“Both our countries are committed to net zero by 2050,” Albanese told reporters after a signing ceremony.

Among those efforts, the leaders agreed to help build secure supply chains between the two nations for “critical minerals, including those that are required for building the green technologies of the future,” Albanese said.

“This partnership will mean we build secure supply chains, promote investment, develop Australia’s domestic sector and make sure Japan’s advanced manufacturers have the critical minerals they need.”

As well as building a framework for secure supply chains, the partnership would promote information sharing and collaboration, including research, investment and commercial arrangements between Japanese and Australian critical minerals projects, the Australian government said in a statement.

Kishida told reporters signing the updated joint security declaration was one of the largest achievements of his visit.

“I expressed my determination that all necessary options for the defence of our country, including the so-called counterstrike capability, would become contemplated and Japan’s defence capability will be fundamentally reinforced in the next five years, which is supported by Anthony,” he said.

The Japanese leader said the two nations had been working to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific under “an increasingly severe strategic environment”.

“Through this experience, the bonds that tie Japan and Australia together have become much stronger. And our two countries have become the central pillar of cooperation among like-minded countries,” he said.

Australia is a major supplier of iron ore, coal and gas to Japan. Locating the meeting in Perth, 3,700km from the national capital Canberra, was meant to showcase Western Australia’s importance in supplying Japan’s energy needs, including renewable energy. The state is also a key source of beef and wheat to Japan.

Canberra and Tokyo recently bolstered security ties in response to China’s growing military strength in the region. In May, Kishida and Albanese pledged to work toward a new bilateral declaration on security cooperation.

A previous joint declaration outlined security cooperation in areas such as counter-terrorism and North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes. The two countries in 2014 elevated their relationship to a “Special Strategic Partnership”.

SYDNEY: An Indonesian man jailed for his role in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings that killed hundreds of people has had his sentence reduced, Australia’s prime minister said on Friday (Aug 19), a move that could see him released on parole as early as this month.

Umar Patek was sentenced to 20 years jail by an Indonesian court in 2012 after he was found guilty of mixing bombs that ripped through two Bali nightclubs a decade earlier, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians.

A member of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, Patek was also jailed for his role in the bombings of several Jakarta churches on Christmas Eve in 2000 that killed at least 15 people.

Patek was granted the five-month reduction as part of a series of remissions given to inmates on Indonesia’s independence day on Aug 17, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. The bomber has received several similar reductions since his conviction.

Indonesian justice and foreign ministry officials did not respond to questions about the case.

“They (Indonesia) informed us of that decision, and we informed them of our view of that decision,” Albanese told reporters in Queensland.

“They have a system whereby when anniversaries occur, quite often sentences are reduced and commuted for people. But when it comes to someone who’s committed such a heinous crime, a designer and maker of a bomb designed to kill people, to kill and maim, then we have a very strong view,” he said.

The latest reduction could see Patek released on parole as early as this month, CNN Indonesia reported earlier this week citing a local law official.

Albanese said his government will make diplomatic contact with Indonesia over the decision.

On the run for nine years, there had been a US$1 million bounty on Patek’s head before he was finally apprehended in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, in the same town where Osama bin Laden was killed several months after his arrest.

Bali bombing mastermind Hambali, also known as Encep Nurjaman, is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and has been awaiting trial since 2006.

JAKARTA: An Indonesian man jailed for his role in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings that killed hundreds of people could be released on parole in the coming days after the latest reduction in his sentencing, a law official said on Friday (Aug 19)

Umar Patek, a member of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, was sentenced to 20 years in jail by an Indonesian court in 2012 after he was found guilty of mixing bombs that ripped through two Bali nightclubs a decade earlier. A total of 202 people were killed, including 88 Australians.

Patek was also jailed for his role in the bombings of several Jakarta churches on Christmas Eve in 2000 that killed at least 15 people.

He was granted a five-month reduction in jail time as part of a series of remissions regularly given to inmates on Indonesia’s independence day on Aug 17.

Zaeroji, head of the law and human rights office in East Java where Patek is jailed, told Reuters that the bomber was now eligible for parole this month because he had served two-thirds of his sentence after a series of such reductions.

The matter has been passed to the central government for final approval, he said.

“We have proposed this to the justice and human rights ministry and from there it will be decided,” said Zaeroji, who goes by one name.

The justice and human rights ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

The decision has sparked concern in Australia where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Patek’s release would have a devastating impact on the victims’ families.

“We lost 88 Australians in that terrorist attack, and it was a barbaric attack,” Albanese told reporters in Queensland.

“They have a system whereby when anniversaries occur, quite often sentences are reduced and commuted for people. But when it comes to someone who’s committed such a heinous crime, a designer and maker of a bomb designed to kill people, to kill and maim, then we have a very strong view,” he said.

Albanese said his government will make diplomatic contact with Indonesia over the case.

On the run for nine years, there had been a US$1 million bounty on Patek’s head before he was finally apprehended in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, in the same town where Osama bin Laden was killed several months after his arrest.

Bali bombing mastermind Hambali, also known as Encep Nurjaman, is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and has been awaiting trial since 2006.