Defence deal is latest example of deepening ties between Canberra and Tokyo amid shared concerns over China\u2019s rise.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 19 Apr 2026<\/span>19 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Australia and Japan have signed contracts for the first three of 11 warships set to be delivered to the Australian navy under a landmark $7bn defence deal, as the two close US allies in the Asia Pacific region deepen defence cooperation.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s Defence Minister Richard Marles and Japanese Defence Minister Koizumi Shinjiro made the announcement in Melbourne on Saturday at the signing ceremony for the Mogami-class warships.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The \u201cMogami Memorandum\u201d pledges to deepen military ties, including through \u201ccloser industrial cooperation\u201d in defence.<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build three of the stealth frigates in southern Nagasaki Prefecture, while Australia\u2019s Austal will build eight in Western Australia.<\/p>\n The\u00a0first of the Japanese-built warships\u00a0is scheduled to be delivered in 2029 and\u00a0enter\u00a0service\u00a0in 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cOur surface fleet is more important than at any time in decades,\u201d Marles said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThese general-purpose frigates will help secure our maritime trade routes and northern approaches as part of a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n Shinjiro said closer defence coordination was becoming more important as Australia and Japan faced an \u201cincreasingly severe security environment\u201d.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s government last year announced that it had chosen Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build its fleet of next-generation warships, following a bidding war between the Tokyo-based firm and Germany\u2019s Thyssenkrupp.<\/p>\n Australia has committed to a record $305bn in military spending over the next decade, as part of a widespread defence overhaul aimed at boosting the country\u2019s naval power to levels not seen since World War II.<\/p>\n Under the plans, Canberra\u2019s defence spending is set to rise to 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 3033, from about 2 percent now.<\/p>\n Australia and Japan, two of the United States\u2019 closest allies, have ramped up military cooperation in recent years amid shared concerns about shifts in the regional security environment, particularly China\u2019s rising influence. Tokyo and Canberra are also members of the Quad security bloc led by the US.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Defence deal is latest example of deepening ties between Canberra and Tokyo amid shared concerns over China\u2019s rise. Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026 Australia and Japan have signed contracts for the first three of 11 warships set to be delivered to the Australian navy under a landmark $7bn defence deal, as the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jp-1730786685-rotated.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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