Japanese soldiers to train in Darwin alongside Australian and American forces.

Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles announced on Sunday that Japan will start regular deployments of troops in northern Australia as part of military cooperation with the United States. As Washington and its allies become increasingly concerned about China’s increasing military might in the Indo-Pacific, Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, already hosts around 2,000 U.S. Marines for six months of the year.

“Today we are announcing that there will be regular deployments of Japan’s amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade to Australia,” Marles said at a televised press conference in Darwin, alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani.

“Having a more forward leaning opportunity for greater training with Japan and the U.S. together is a really fantastic opportunity for our defence,” Marles told Sky News on Sunday, according to a transcript.

Given that Darwin was a key Allied station during World War Two and was brutally bombarded by Japanese forces, the deployment is very significant. The port city was the target of air strikes during the war, which are sometimes compared to Australia’s Pearl Harbor.
Austin expressed confidence on Sunday that the United States will supply the capabilities outlined in the AUKUS agreement, which calls for Australia to purchase nuclear submarines from the United States and work with the United States and Britain to construct a new class of nuclear-powered submarines.

The U.S. Defense Department was focused “on a smooth and effective transition” to the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, Austin said.

“I’m really proud of the things that this administration has accomplished over the last four years, in terms of what we’ve done in this region to strengthen alliances and to work with countries that share the vision of a free and open Indo Pacific,” Austin added.

The 14th trilateral summit between the three allies will take place in Darwin on Sunday between Australia, the United States, and Japan. The countries voiced grave concerns about East China Sea security at the most recent trilateral, which was held in Singapore in June. They also stated that they opposed “any destabilising and coercive unilateral actions” in the region, a tacit allusion to China. In September, China launched a rare intercontinental ballistic missile that landed in the Pacific Ocean as part of its efforts to increase its military might in the Indo-Pacific region. Several Pacific countries, including Australia, expressed alarm about the test launch.