{"id":130656,"date":"2025-09-09T16:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130656\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T16:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:53:11","slug":"nt-chief-minister-travels-to-japan-in-bid-to-secure-defence-rotations-to-darwin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130656\/","title":{"rendered":"NT chief minister travels to Japan in bid to secure defence rotations to Darwin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Territory chief minister has travelled to Japan to try and plead the case for the Top End to host hundreds of Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers each year.<\/p>\n

Last year, at a joint defence meeting in Darwin, Australia, Japan and the US announced that there would be regular deployments of Japanese soldiers through Australia’s north<\/a> from 2025.<\/p>\n

Then-US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin said the Japanese troop deployments would coincide with an annual rotation of about 2,500 US marines in the NT’s Top End.<\/p>\n

“Darwin is a focal point for our expanding trilateral relationship,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"ADF<\/p>\n

Japanese troops undertook exercises in Townsville earlier this year. (ABC North Queensland: Rachael Merritt)<\/p>\n

Japanese soldiers conducted exercises in north Queensland earlier this year, but the foreign force has not so far based personnel in Darwin.<\/p>\n

NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said in a statement she wanted to ensure the NT was still factored into the future by Japanese defence leaders.<\/p>\n

“By making my first overseas mission to Japan, I am sending a clear message: the Northern Territory is the allied partner of choice for regular rotations of the Japanese Self-Defense Force,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Politician<\/p>\n

Lia Finocchiaro travelled to Japan on Tuesday. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“Following last year’s visit by the Japanese Defence Minister to the NT, it’s important that the territory government makes the case directly.<\/p>\n

“We can’t rely on Canberra alone to speak for us.”<\/p>\n

An NT government spokesperson said Ms Finocchiaro would also spruik the NT’s “proven track record hosting allied partners like the United States”.<\/p>\n

Australia picks Japan to build $10b frigates<\/a><\/p>\n

Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries wins a fierce contest to build the Australian navy’s new fleet of warships, beating a bid from German rival Thyssen\u00adKrupp Marine Systems.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Richard Marles has been contacted for comment about the future of the Japanese troops in the north, and if there is a firm plan for where they will be based.<\/p>\n

Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh said the Japanese soldiers had “so far been to Townsville” since the announcement was made last year, as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre.<\/p>\n

Japanese forces ‘imperative’ for NT<\/p>\n

Federal special envoy for defence, Luke Gosling, said the need for Japanese forces to be based in the NT was of high strategic importance.<\/p>\n

“There’s a geo-strategic imperative for getting more Japanese Self-Defense Force troops operating here in the Northern Territory,” Mr Gosling said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Luke Gosling is the federal MP for Solomon, which covers Darwin and its satellite city of Palmerston. (ABC News: Ian Redfearn)<\/p>\n

“When you consider the Quad partners of India, Japan, the US and Australia, the more that we operate together, the more that the US marines that are stationed here in Darwin for six months of the year can operate with Japan, the better it is.<\/p>\n

“I think the future is bright for our work with Japan.”<\/p>\n

Japan has strong ties with the NT, with former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe making a historic visit to the region<\/a> in 2018, on the 76th\u00a0anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin in World War II.<\/p>\n

Ms Finocchiaro will also meet with Japanese industry heavyweights, including representatives from gas company Inpex, while abroad.<\/p>\n

Her office did not respond to an ABC interview request about the Japanese trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Territory chief minister has travelled to Japan to try and plead the case for the Top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,35265,5249,3403,941,54395,30376,14512,44,26673,90762,8867,1098,6649,90763],"class_list":{"0":"post-130656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chief-minister","11":"tag-darwin","12":"tag-defence","13":"tag-japan","14":"tag-japanese","15":"tag-lia-finocchiaro","16":"tag-military","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-north-queensland","19":"tag-northern-australia","20":"tag-northern-territory","21":"tag-nt","22":"tag-townsville","23":"tag-us-marines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}