Japan, Australia to seek security agreement when premiers meet this week -Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan and Australia seek to reach a new security agreement with particular regard to China’s maritime expansion when the two countries’ prime ministers meet in Perth on Saturday, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday.

The two U.S. allies have been fortifying security ties as a counterbalance to China’s growing military strength. In May, Japan’s Fumio Kishida and Australia’s Anthony Albanese agreed to work toward a new bilateral declaration on security cooperation.

Coordination in defence and economic security for realising a free and open Indo-Pacific region will likely go into the declaration, the Nikkei reported, without citing sources.

An official at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters that it was too early to comment on what will be achieved at the meeting.

The Australian prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The countries’ previous joint declaration on security cooperation, agreed by then-prime ministers Shinzo Abe and John Howard in 2007, stipulates cooperation in such areas as counter-terrorism and North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Kishida and Albanese are also set to confirm cooperation in energy and natural resources, the Nikkei reported. Australia is Japan’s biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Additional reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Christopher Cushing)