Australia Joins US-Japan Military Exercise for the 1st Time

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) sails in formation with ships from the Indian Navy, Royal Australian Navy, and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force while conducting replenishment-at-seas approaches (RASAPs) as part of Malabar 2020. U.S. INDOPACOM

Australia has taken part in a military exercise that was previously an exclusive activity between the United States and Japan as the contours of the AUKUS partnership take a more concrete shape.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) last week joined their counterparts for Exercise Keen Edge in Hawaii and mainland Japan, which tested combat readiness to counter security challenges in the region.

The military exercise aimed to test communications between different locations, improve interoperability—the ability of computer systems to exchange with each other—and practice “command and control in a dynamic scenario,” the ADF said in a statement on Feb. 2.

Keen Edge 24 was historically a bilateral activity between Japan and the U.S. before Australia announced its participation in 2023.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles described the country’s engagement as “another example of our commitment to strengthening security cooperation and working with others, including the United States, to support regional stability.”

Chief of Joint Operations Greg Bilton noted that the Australia-Japan relationship is “underpinned by engagement and collaboration across all aspects of defence.”

“We are actively strengthening our commitment to security cooperation,” Mr. Bilton added.

The event followed Exercise Yama Sakura 23 in December, 2023, the first Japan-U.S. exercise that Australia joined in after being an observer for more than 10 years.

The large-scale command post-training exercise saw the ADF deploy over 200 personnel to camp Higashi-Chitose in Hokkaido, Japan. They joined over 1,000 members of the U.S. army and over 5,000 personnel of the Japanese Ground Defence Force.

“Australia’s participation in Exercise Yama Sakura 85 is a significant step forward in trilateral cooperation in support of an open, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Major General Scott Winter said in 2023.

China’s Growing Aggressiveness

Efforts to streamline military manoeuvres between the three nations were set against a backdrop of the Chinese Communist Party’s growing aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

Over the last decade, Beijing has flexed its military muscles in the region, particularly the South China Sea. The communist regime expanded its desired area of control by preventing Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines from developing their oil and gas fields unless they submitted to Beijing’s rules.

While some countries acquiesced to the regime’s terms and some tried to remain neutral, others have openly resisted Beijing’s legal preferences.

Japan was the only country in the region to call for the restriction Beijing’s military exercises in its exclusive economic zone.

Meanwhile, most countries in the Indo-Pacific region, except Brunei, have objected to Beijing’s so-called nine-dash line, which claimed control over the fishing stocks and the development of oil and gas in various parts of the South China Sea.

The nine-dash line has been deemed invalid under both the Convention and general international law.

According to China analyst Isaac B. Kardon, Beijing sought to change the prevailing international law of the sea by building bureaucratic organisations, domestic legal bodies, and a naval and maritime law apparatus.

“Systematically, deliberately, and with growing sophistication, China’s leaders seek to shape and use International law to their advantage,” he argued in his book “China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order.”

“Operations on the water are undertaken expressly to advance China’s definitions of ’the rules’ through actions portrayed as defending China’s rights under international law.”