Energy supplies and defence are among the key areas Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will broach with Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Monday.
Ms Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader, landed in the capital on Sunday for a three-day visit framed around the 50th anniversary of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.
The treaty transformed a relationship defined by the trauma of World War II into a values-centric economic partnership worth almost $108bn in two-way trade.
Australia imports almost 8 per cent of its diesel from Japan, making the country crucial to government efforts to secure more supply for industry amid Iran war fuel shocks.
Japan in-turn relies on Australia for up to 40 per cent of its gas imports.
In an op-ed at the weekend, Ms Takaichi said she intended to “reaffirm with Prime Minister Albanese our two-way partnership on energy security, and for us to work together to contribute to energy stability across Asia”.
“Today, the world faces intensifying geopolitical competition and a shaking of the international order – from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine to mounting tensions across the Middle East,” she wrote in the Australian Financial Review.
“The severe international environment makes it necessary for each nation in our region to enhance their resilience and promote their freedom to decide for themselves even as we remain bound together in complex and deeply intertwined relationships of mutual interdependence.”
She said Australia and Japan had “the will and capability to play a leading role” in advancing free-trade in the Indo-Pacific, which would give both countries better energy security and “supply chain resilience”.
Ms Takaichi also highlighted defence ties and praised Australia’s “landmark” decision to pick the Japanese-designed Mogami-class frigate to replace its ageing Anzac-class warships.
“I am firmly convinced that through endeavours such as this, Japan and Australia can make an even greater contribution to the peace and stability of our region and to the international community,” she said, adding that she would raise deeper co-operation on cybersecurity.
She said she hoped to “work with Prime Minister Albanese during this visit to chart a new future for Japan and Australia – one that looks to the next 50 years and seeks to broaden our co-operation further in every field: security, economic security, trade and investment, people-to-people exchanges, tourism, education and research”.
A conservative leader often compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatch, Ms Takaichi drew on the Prime Minister’s “real passion for rock music” as a common link between them.
The Australian side has been tighter-lipped on the talks but NewsWire understands regional security will be high on the agenda, including freedom of navigation exercises in the Taiwan Strait and the broader South China Sea.
Ms Takaichi last year outraged Beijing by warned a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could be “survival-threatening” to Japan and trigger a military response from Tokyo.
