{"id":159284,"date":"2022-01-07T20:21:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T14:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=159284"},"modified":"2022-01-07T20:21:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T14:51:02","slug":"japan-australia-defence-agreement-signals-that-middle-powers-are-willing-to-play-a-more-active-role-in-the-indo-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/japan-australia-defence-agreement-signals-that-middle-powers-are-willing-to-play-a-more-active-role-in-the-indo-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan-Australia defence agreement signals that middle powers are willing to play a more active role in the Indo-Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/span><\/b>: <\/span>Australia and Japan<\/span><\/b> recently signed a defence treaty called the <\/span>Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA)<\/span><\/b> which has a great strategic significance for Asia and the Indo-Pacific<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the significance of the recently signed RAA?<\/span><\/b><\/h5>\n

It marks the <\/span>move away from a US-centric outlook<\/span><\/b> towards a greater focus on bilateral ties and regional groupings.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is also a sign that <\/span>Japan is willing to play a more proactive role<\/span><\/b> in the region.<\/span> Tokyo is trying to seek RAA-like agreements with the UK and France as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

It provides the <\/span>middle powers<\/span><\/b> like Japan, Australia, India to <\/span>expand their cooperation<\/span><\/b> and build on the momentum created by the Quad.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has generated some predictable negative reaction<\/span><\/b> from China.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement further cements the trends that are part of the changing security architecture in the region.<\/p>\n

How is the security architecture changing in the Indo-Pacific?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

After the Second World War, security<\/span><\/b> order<\/span><\/b> in Asia and the Indo-Pacific was marked by the <\/span>US\u2019s bilateral ties with various players,\u00a0<\/span><\/b>while in<\/span> Europe, regional groupings like NATO played a key role.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, this has been <\/span>changing<\/span><\/b> recently due to the <\/span>rise of an assertive China.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The following positive developments are leading to a more <\/span>empowered and committed regional strategic network<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

–<\/strong> The region has seen the formation of many regional groupings and bilateral initiatives like <\/span>Quadrilateral Security Dialogue<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a> (or the Quad, with India, Japan, Australia and the US)<\/em>, the <\/span><\/b>AUKUS<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a>, <\/span><\/b>and now the RAA.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Also, recently there has been a greater acceptance of Japan\u2019s role as a strategic player in the region<\/strong>,<\/span> as countries like Vietnam and the Philippines have started looking towards it for support against Beijing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These positive developments will lead to a more <\/span>empowered and committed regional strategic network<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the reasons for these changes?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

This has been enabled, among other factors, by Australia\u2019s willingness to stand up to China<\/strong> on the question of a free and open Indo-Pacific and rules-based global order, despite their deep economic ties.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the way forward for India?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

India already has \u201c2+2\u201d ministerial dialogues with both Japan and Australia and has done much to expand bilateral, trilateral and regional cooperation in the security domain.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It <\/span>must also reach out to other players in the region.<\/span><\/b> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201cJapan-Australia defence agreement signals that middle powers are willing to play a more active role in the Indo-Pacific<\/strong>\u201d published in The Indian Express<\/strong> on 7th<\/sup> Jan 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Australia and Japan recently signed a defence treaty called the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) which has a great strategic significance for Asia and the Indo-Pacific.\u00a0 What is the significance of the recently signed RAA? It marks the move away from a US-centric outlook towards a greater focus on bilateral ties and regional groupings.\u00a0 It… Continue reading Japan-Australia defence agreement signals that middle powers are willing to play a more active role in the Indo-Pacific<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-159284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704739669},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}