From Chinese warships circling Australia to increased military drills around Taiwan, the advent of the second Trump administration comes at a time when China is increasingly flexing its military muscle. In light of this, a new report from the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney argues that deepened defence ties between Australia, Japan and the United States are essential to countering those developments.

In A partnership for the AJUS: Operationalising Australia-Japan-United States defence cooperation authors USSC Research Fellow Tom Corben, The Asia Group Partner and Chair of the Defense and National Security Practice Christopher Johnstone, USSC Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Prof. Peter Dean and Senior Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs Prof. Tetsuo Kotani assess the current state of trilateral defence cooperation and make recommendations to accelerate its agenda.

“Australia has seen, firsthand, that China is ramping up their efforts to unsettle and intimidate US allies around the region,” Prof. Dean noted, “While there has been significant tumult in the early days of the second Trump administration, one thing they have been rock solid on is their need to work with allies in the region to counter China.”

The report provides analysis from top analysts from Australia, Japan and the United States about the most promising and necessary areas for strengthening defence collaboration, as well as the hurdles that must be overcome in order to do so. In particular, enhanced information sharing and maturing joint exercises into real-world operations were themes shared across the three countries.

“Leveraging the unique strengths of each country will significantly enhance our collective defence strategies. Trilateral cooperation between Australia, Japan and the United States is crucial to counter regional threats and ensure long-term stability,” Prof. Dean concluded.

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Recommendations

  1. Australia, Japan and the United States are well positioned to translate their unprecedented strategic alignment into tangible operational outcomes, but doing so will require discipline and prioritisation.
  2. The three countries should prioritise creation of more robust trilateral information security and intelligence-sharing protocols, the essential enabler for all other forms of impactful cooperation.
  3. Australia, Japan and the United States should accelerate the translation of joint exercises into real-world, unscripted operations, particularly in the maritime domain.
  4. The three countries should pursue trilateral contingency planning for major regional flashpoints, leveraging new command and control arrangements and the forthcoming Trilateral Defence Consultations mechanism.
  5. The three countries should establish a new mechanism, or leverage existing forums, to harmonise their respective bilateral defence industrial and technology initiatives.