Arabic version: أستراليا واليابان تعززان العلاقات الدفاعية مع تغيّر التدريبات الأميركية

According to ABC News, Australia and Japan’s defence ministers met in Canberra as President Donald Trump said he would scale back US participation in military exercises with South Korea. Shinjiro Koizumi and Richard Marles avoided directly criticising the decision while stressing continuing concern about North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Trump said on Monday he would reduce US participation in the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises because Seoul had not helped the US war effort in Iran. The exercises began yesterday and are scheduled to continue later in August, involving about 18,000 South Korean personnel and 13 Australian Defence Force personnel serving through United Nations Command. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said the annual drills were defensive.

Koizumi said threats from North Korea and Russia were becoming more severe for Japan, adding that cooperation involving Australia, Japan and the United States was increasingly important. Marles said US decisions were a matter for Washington, but described South Korea as a critically important defence partner and said Australia remained very concerned by North Korea’s programs.

The ministers focused largely on expanding bilateral defence cooperation. They confirmed plans to improve Japan’s access to Australian missile ranges over the next decade, including for sophisticated tests involving hypersonic missiles. Koizumi said an arrangement in Australia would be Japan’s second missile test range arrangement after the United States.

Australia and Japan also said they were progressing work on the Boobook project, a jointly developed high-energy laser. Marles said tests had been successful and that the system could provide greater protection and situational awareness by optically detecting incoming threats.