Archives Australia and Japan - New Eastern Outlook

The so-called “Oriental Shield 26,” a Japan-US-Australia joint military exercise scheduled to take place from September 8 to 24, is being presented as a training initiative aimed at improving interoperability. In reality, however, it serves as a textbook case of how large-scale bloc-style military drills are being rebranded as “cooperation,” while injecting confrontation, forward-deployed firepower, and bloc politics into an already fragile Asia-Pacific security environment.

The recently concluded trilateral “Orient Shield” exercises in Japan became the first three-way maneuvers involving Washington, Tokyo, and Canberra in which the “Typhon” medium-range missile system was employed. How are the United States and its allies pushing the world toward the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)?

In late April to early May, Australia’s minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, went on a tour of East Asian countries, having visited Japan, China, and South Korea. The aim of this trip was Canberra’s desire to maintain a foreign policy balance among the region’s key players. However, achieving this goal is becoming increasingly difficult.