Richard Tanter from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT writes that the defence pact between Australia and Japan confirms already accelerating tendencies for both Japan and Australia to militarize their foreign policies, and forms the core of a nascent anti-China US-dominated multilateral alliance system. Tanter argues that Australia's decision to emphasize the military dimension of its relationship with Japan, in mutual concert with the United States, above an insistence on serious Japanese commitment to its claim to be a country based 'on democratic values, a commitment to human rights, freedom and the rule of law', demonstrates a profoundly imbalanced and imprudent understanding of the true interests and concerns of the peoples of both countries.