‘Better late than never’: Frigate deal ‘cements’ quasi-alliance with Japan

‘Better late than never’: Frigate deal ‘cements’ quasi-alliance with Japan

Let’s go live now to the foreign editor at the Australian, Greg Sheridan. Greg, thanks for being here. Big announcement today from the deputy prime minister. Did they make the right call going with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the next frig? Yes, Kieran, they did make the right call. This is a good decision by the Albanesei government. Um, in the end, it’s still a tier 2 uh warship, but it’s better than anything we’ve got at the moment, and it’s a very capable ship. Um, it also cements the quasi alliance we have with Japan. In a way, it fulfills the strategic vision that Tony Abbott had for Japan when he wanted to get them to build submarines for us. Japan has not been a big exporter of defense equipment and um us making a huge order like this helps evolve the Japanese strategic personality and uh they will build very capable ships and also the government has very sensibly decided to build the first three of them in Japan which means we might get them on time and on budget. So, as long as defense doesn’t bugger it up by demanding a million changes, which is what it normally does, uh this is this is a good move. And um it’s sad that it’s in the second term of the Albanesei government, but you know, better late than never. It it’s interesting because those uh I think our viewers will be well aware of Japan’s heavy industrial capacity, its technology, tech prowess, its efficiency, all of that is well known. But it hasn’t really extended into the military sphere until until recently given the historical many many reasons around that. But I do note this is the 80th anniversary or this week we mark the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So it it it reminds us how far that relationship has come over the last 80 years. Greg, well that’s absolutely right, Kieran. So Australia played a big role in bringing Japan back into the fold of um the international community after the war. It was the menses government uh with blackjack mchuan as the relevant uh minister who signed a historic trade treaty with Japan in I think about 1957 uh which was also quite important in um in Japan’s rehabilitation into the western alliance as well. We share an outlook with Japan, a strategic outlook. We’re both critical allies of the United States. Beijing objects to Japan in principle. The Japanese were very bitter at the way they had been enticed into offering a submarine for Australia and then uh thrown out partly as a result of Abbott losing the leadership. And they felt at the time that one reason they were thrown out was because of the massive campaign that China waged against that purchase. Now, I think that’s probably not true. I think um it had more to do with the leadership uh moves, but it’s worth noting, of course, if we’d gone with the Japanese sub, we’d just about have our first sub by now. But Australia and Japan are very like-minded nations, and um you know, they will want us to be formidable militarily in a way that no other nation would except for the United States. So, it’s a tremendously good um you know partnership and it makes the partnership more intimate and more militarily formidable. Yeah. And and the language from Richard M today was clearcut on that. He said and and and actually it surprised me to an extent but then when you think about it the way you put it it does make sense. He said there is no nation that we are more aligned with strategically than Japan. So that relationship is as close as it could be. Greg, that’s right. And of course, there’s a wonderful um cognitive dissonance here between everything that um Prime Minister Albanesei said on his love in in Beijing with what we’re doing today. And we see a Chinese national charged with foreign interference uh in Australia. And you know, AI would tell anybody who listened to them that the Chinese are the chief, uh, you know, um, purveyors of foreign espionage and cyber attack and so forth on Australia. And Japan is completely focused on the military threat from Beijing. One reason their military equipment is so relevant to us is that it is all designed with countering Beijing in mind. Now you were right Kieran to say they haven’t focused on defense exports previously but their own defense equipment is very capable. Japan is a very capable military power. It has its new generation conventional submarines are extremely formidable. It’s it’s right across everything about robotics and so on. The other thing is a combination of sort of silly climate policies and Chinese strategic pricing has denuded both the United States and Western Europe of their manufacturing capabilities. The two parts of the Western alliance which still make things in very big volume are Japan and Korea. They make ships and they make submarines. They make everything else. Now, it’s it’s absolutely smart for the United States and Australia to uh encourage Japan in persisting in that industrial production as part of the as part of the Western Alliance. I mean, I think everything Miles has said on this has been very sound and um you know, the Albani government is a bit like what Jim Callahan said of the Americans. you know they will follow good policy but only after they’ve exhausted all the other alternatives but this today is good policy. I want to ask you about your piece in the Australian today on net zero. You touched on it briefly in in that answer there I think but you point out that this debate within the coalition is not unique among center riot parties around the world. Yeah. So Kieran, net zero is just a fantasy. It’s just not reality. And of course you say that in Australia and you get dismissed as a crank. But the Economist magazine which is the sort of very epitome of Daros man and globalism and so on. This week has a big story saying well net zero is just not going to happen. It just isn’t going to happen. There’s a very big analytical piece in the journal foreign affairs saying the same thing. the global carbon emissions have gone up quite radically between 2020 and 2023. Uh 2024, we had more energy derived from coal than we have in the history of the human race. Um uh fossil fuels still make up well over 80% of primary energy. It’s just not happening. Now, that’s not to say you deny climate change or anything, but all the center-right parties around the English-speaking world have abandoned net zero by 2050 as a hard target. The Trump has, obviously, the British Conservatives have, and so has Nigel Farage, who is leading by miles in the polls. The Canadian Conservatives did, and they forced the Canadian Liberal government to abolish carbon taxes. And the New Zealand government retains the notional commitment, but it has reversed all of Justinda Ardurn’s climate policies. And the problem in Australia is especially the ABC, but the progressive class generally just won’t let these facts into the debate. You know, China is massively increasing its coal fired power capabilities. It approved more coal fired power stations in 2024 than it has in 10 years. Well, it’s just simply not true. It’s not plausible. It just doesn’t exist in the real world to say China is heading towards net zero nor India. All of the big increase in emissions is happening in the developing world and the developing world is going to carbonize before it ever decarbonizes. Therefore, the question for Australia is yes, we should reduce emissions. How can we do that at minimum cost and without destroying the Australian economy? and the idea that it’s the coalition’s climate wars which have caused the confusion. The problem is that these elementary facts are never allowed into the debate. I mean, um, there was a debate on insiders a week or two ago about China decarbonizing its steel industry. Well, that is just a fantasy. I mean, a Chinese ministry spokesman might say that, but it’s absurd for those sort of fantasies to dominate the Australian debate. Now, the coalition has not fought on this issue for a long time. Scott Morrison uh accepted net zero as a target although he never intended to implement it. Uh and Australia now will need to have a shuttering debate about this because we are not going to hit net zero. Neither is anybody else and eventually reality will reassert itself.

The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan discusses the frigate deal recently reached between Australia and Japan.

“They did make the right call, this is a good decision by the Albanese government,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News Australia.

“In the end, it is still a tier two warship, but it is better than anything we’ve got at the moment, and it’s a very capable ship.

“It also cements the quasi-alliance we have with Japan.

“As long as defence doesn’t bugger it up by demanding a million changes, which is what it normally does, this is a good move and it’s sad it is in the second term of the Albanese government, better late than never.”