Australia says seeking military technology cooperation with Japan

Australia is seeking greater military technology cooperation with Japan and hopes Tokyo will eventually supply stealth submarine designs, Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said on Wednesday (11/06/2014).

The dismantling of an arms export ban by Japan in April has paved the way for Japan to pursue a ground-breaking deal to help Australia build a fleet of stealth submarines that it wants to extend its surveillance reach deep into the Indian Ocean.

“We are taking small and determined steps down that path (of seeking the stealth designs),” Johnston told Reuters in an interview in Tokyo. “We are looking to push the relationship a little further along, carefully and discreetly, as to how we might better inter-operate.” Johnston was meeting his Japanese counterpart, Itsunori Onodera, along with the foreign ministers of Australia and Japan, Julie Bishop and Fumio Kishida, in Tokyo on Wednesday for talks to bolster relations.

Any agreement on closer industrial ties could also see Japan and Australia cooperate in military hardware beyond submarines, he said.

The talks also lead Japan and Australia to “compare notes“ on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter that both nations plan to deploy, Johnston said, helping them sustain a programme that will be at the core of their frontline air defence strategies in the coming decades. - Reuters