The budding Australia, Japan, United States (AJUS) defence relationship is gaining momentum, but alignment on defence supply chains and technology cooperation will be essential to fulfil trilateral objectives, a new report from the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney finds.
Earlier this year, the USSC hosted a trilateral Track 1.5 workshop with representatives from all three countries to assess their respective defence industry and technology cooperation. Following this, USSC Non-Resident Fellow Guy Boekenstein, Institute of Geoeconomics Research Associate Rintaro Inoue and Center for Strategic and International Studies Adjunct Fellow (Non-Resident) and Japan Chair Gregg Rubinstein shared their respective assessments of current trilateral defence industry and technology cooperation and what work is still needed. These have been published today in the report, Into gear: Defence industrial and technology cooperation between Australia, Japan and the United States, edited by USSC Research Fellow Tom Corben.
“What we are learning from these discussions and assessments is that there is strong momentum growing behind AJUS trilateral defence cooperation, but deeper industrial and technology cooperation is an essential next step,” USSC Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Dr Lavina Lee noted.
The report highlights significant milestones for defence industry and technological integration, such as the Australia-Japan Mogami frigate deal and recent US-Japan shipbuilding agreements. The authors find that deeper coordination could be achieved through setting up a dedicated working group, trilateralising munitions production initiatives, exploring reciprocal ship maintenance authorities, and factoring trilateral requirements and contributions into pending defence acquisition reforms.
“The Australian Government is backing the Australia-Japan Special Strategic Partnership through their decision to go with the Mogami-class frigate; we now need to view the defence industry and technology integration agenda as a need-to-have, not a nice-to-have, for AJUS defence cooperation to click into gear,” Dr Lee concluded.
- Into gear: Defence industrial and technology cooperation between Australia, Japan and the United States is now available to view or download.