Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese had gathered in Perth to sign the new agreement. The previous agreements date from fifteen years ago, when jihadist attacks and the proliferation of weapons in particular were of great concern to both countries.
“With this historic statement, we are sending a strong signal to the region about our strategic alignment,” Albanian said at the signing.
The Japanese prime minister emphasized that the agreement provides a response to the “ever tougher strategic environment”. He clearly seemed to refer to China and North Korea, although the two countries were not mentioned by name.
The cooperation between Japan and Australia will mainly focus on the sharing of signals and geo-information from electronic eavesdropping satellites. Neither country currently has an extensive foreign intelligence network. But Tokyo and Canberra do have sophisticated means of collecting information through intercepting communications.