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As the Indo-Pacific countries develop closer ties and stronger military forces, the United States can rely on regional partnerships between Japan and Australia to thwart China’s ambitions in the region, former officials said. Told Fox News Digital.
“Japan and Australia share a common position on the need to balance China’s power in the Indo-Pacific region, and we have in fact for years,” said former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Told Fox News Digital. “”[China] Became very aggressive under Xi Jinping and tried to dominate the area, and if it did, it would make the area completely unstable. You need to make sure that China understands that it is willing to work with China to sell it to China, but it will not be bullied by China. ”
The United States faces difficult and complex efforts to check China’s regional ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Officials have previously told Fox News Digital that the United States relies on overlapping bilateral treaties to create the same kind of cooperation that the majority of Europe uses through NATO.
Downer argued that China’s political system is best run on the premise that it “will not change from now until death.”
The most reliable form of deterrence in the United States remains the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (or QUAD) between the United States, Japan, Australia and India. QUAD does not have the same military commitment as NATO, but China has all similarly denounced it as “NATO in Asia.”
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“QUAD was born out of the initial trilateral security dialogue with the United States, Australia and Japan, and India was actually and very wisely added by the Japanese,” Downer explained. “Japan was actually a very reliable ally in the Indo-Pacific region for Australia, and for the United States as well.”
Ambassador Mikio Mori of New York tells Fox News Digital that, other than the treaty alliance with the United States, Japan has no single “best” ally in the region and instead relies on a mosaic of partnerships with various partners. I explained. Various roles.
However, the United States sees Japan-Australia relations as an important element of China’s deterrence policy in the Indo-Pacific. Kevin Maher, a former Japanese bureaucrat at the State Department, told Fox News Digital that “with the United States aside” Australia is “obviously” Japan’s most important relationship.
He touted Japan’s role in leading the region in “China’s perception,” but admitted that both Australia and Japan had taken on that obligation together.
Australia was forced to return to its base, saying China had intercepted a military aircraft over the South China Sea.
The China’s Belt and Road InitiativeBy investing in smaller developing countries, China will gain influence over “second and third” countries that are important to the supply chain, especially “military territories, cyber hacking and acquirers.” It is useful for. In 2010, Japan left rare earth metal resources on suspicion of retaliation for the conflict between fishing vessels and water bodies. Japan at that time became almost completely dependent on China for these metals.
Since then, Japan has been working to expand its military power, which the US government is “very welcome”. Japan is now Maximum spending They spend about $ 49 billion annually on their army, the seventh highest, above Russia and South Korea, but below Britain and Germany.
“In 2015, the then Prime Minister changed their basic policy to enable so-called collective self-defense,” Maher explained. “Until then, the operational plan was … very limited because it could only be called personal self-defense, that is, it was limited to actions to protect Japan.”
“Collective defense” measures are eligible in situations where Japan is facing an “existential crisis”, and Article 2 of the Constitution states that “an armed attack against a foreign country closely related to Japan has occurred, as a result. , Threatening the survival of Japan. “
“This is a direct attack on Japan, for example the Taiwan Strait scenario or the Korean Peninsula scenario,” Maher said. “So there is more combined training and combined planning underway between the United States and Japan.”
The unknowns in the largest region remain consistent with India’s stance in the region. Downer expressed his concern about India’s position, saying “it is still in a fairly close relationship with Russia.”
“I don’t see India as an ally,” Downer said. “Obviously, I say the United States is our ultimate ally, but I think Japan is very similar to our allies. India is a like-minded democracy. That’s what I call India. How to see: “He added,” India was pretty strong politically on China’s issues, “admitted.
“I think relations with China and Russia are a function of history and will not change so rapidly,” Downer said. “I think it’s important to keep India on our side.” “. Invasion of the Xi Jinping administration. ”
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Downer believes Australia and Japan must continue to build coalitions in areas such as Singapore and Indonesia that they believe can one day “dominate the area.”
These alliances, both Australia and Japan, boast considerable support for US military bases and will add an already “huge amount” of military force available in the region. Downer believes that the current alliance and military forces could reject its efforts if China attempts to move more aggressively in the region, such as invading Taiwan.
“If they try to rob Taiwan, it can be wonderfully difficult and incredibly expensive in terms of the loss of life, the destruction of equipment and the impact it already has on China,” he said.