| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| Australia flags closer Japanese military alliance |
| 2006-08-01 |
| THE Federal Government has flagged closer military ties with Japan. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who is visiting Tokyo, says Australian troops have already worked effectively with Japan's Self Defence Force in Iraq, and it could be time to consider joint military training. “We've been able to work together well in East Timor, we've been able to demonstrate we've been able to work together well in Iraq,” he told ABC Radio. “Who knows what the future may hold, but the fact that two countries that share the same values and the same alliance relationship with the United States, in the same broadly defined region of the world, it's only natural that there should be some association between the Self Defence Force and the Australian Defence Force.” Japan's constitution limits the role of its Self Defence Force, and the military is a sensitive issue in the country. Tokyo's relationship with China – which Japan invaded in 1937 and occupied until the end of World War II – has soured because of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a controversial shrine in Tokyo. The shrine honours Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals who were executed after the conflict. Mr Downer, whose father was a prisoner of war in Japanese-occupied Singapore, raised the issue of the shrine visits with Mr Koizumi yesterday. But he said he was guided by his father's approach to dealing with Japan. “He took the view that, well, we had to look to the future in the relationship, we couldn't just keep reliving the past,” Mr Downer said. “He'd been in Changi for three-and-a-half years. “I've taken my lead in life in respect of the Japan relationship very much from him. “I move on like he moved on.” |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #3 a given |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-08-01 21:12 |
| #2 US, Japan, Australia, India... At that rate, why not add The Republic of China. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-08-01 20:47 |
| #1 Looks like the allies are forming up against China and NK. |
| Posted by: djohn66 2006-08-01 20:02 |