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: Australia is aiming for a stable relationship with China despite differences in particular on trade, Australia’s foreign minister said, as she called on China to use its influence as a great power to help end the war in Ukraine.

Australia’s ties with its largest trading partner are at a low after disputes over a number of issues including the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, trade and Australian accusations of Chinese interference.

“I think it is a long road on which many steps will have to be taken by both parties to a more stable relationship,” Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong told reporters after meeting her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday (Sep 22) on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“In terms of issues of difference, obviously first amongst them is the issue of trade blockages, and that is the issue I focused on at the outset,” she said.

Wong said that her meeting with the Chinese foreign minister was constructive and she urged China, as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5), to use its influence to help end the Ukraine crisis.

“China is a great power … We encourage China as a P5 member with a special responsibility to uphold the UN Charter to use its influence to end the war,” she said.

She said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was illegal and President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons was “unthinkable and irresponsible”.

Wong said in her talks with Wang Yi she had raised the issue of Australian journalist Cheng Lei and blogger Yang Hengjun, who have been detained in China and face espionage charges.

Thursday’s meeting with Wang Yi, the second in three months, comes as the recently elected Labor government looks to rebuild ties after a sharp deterioration during the term of the previous conservative government.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said this week “there was a belligerence in the way in which the former government spoke”, and his government was looking to change the tone.

Woodside and industry experts have long said that it would cost billions more to develop Sunrise via Timor-Leste instead of Darwin.

Ramos-Horta said that it made no sense to him to send the gas to Darwin, which would require a 500km pipeline, rather than to Timor-Leste with a 200km pipeline, and added that operating costs in Timor-Leste would be much less than in Australia.

“I don’t understand the economic logic of the joint venture of insisting to take that pipeline. But we are open to discussions with the government,” he said.

An independent study leaked to the Australian Financial Review last month showed that the total capital cost for the LNG project would be US$11.8 billion in Darwin and US$14.1 billion in Timor-Leste.

Ramos-Horta said he was confident that Sunrise would be developed, possibly in tandem with the Abadi gas field off Indonesia.

“I’m also confident that in the end we will reach agreement with Woodside and the other joint venture members,” he said.

Japan’s Inpex, operator of the Abadi gas project, declined to comment on Ramos-Horta’s remarks.

A Woodside spokesperson reiterated on Wednesday that its focus is for the joint venture, which includes state-owned petroleum company Timor Gap and Japan’s Osaka Gas, to finalise a production sharing contract with the Timorese and Australian governments before debating development options.

Ramos-Horta echoed comments by Timor Gap, the majority stakeholder in Sunrise, that studies show there are no economic or technical obstacles to piping gas to Timor-Leste, despite the challenge of traversing a deep ocean trench.

Comments by Ramos-Horta that China could invest in the gas project come at a time when Australia and its allies have raised concern about Beijing’s growing influence in the region after it signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands.

However, he played down any security risk from China investing in a pipeline.

When asked to assess the situation in the Solomon Islands, he said that he would advise the Pacific islands not to bring in regional powers that might be unwelcome to their neighbours.

“Any rational Timorese leader would never do anything without taking into consideration the sensitivities of your neighbours,” he said, noting that Timor-Leste was strategically located between Australia and Indonesia.