Japan's Ground Self-Defence Force (JGSDF) — its army — will send 40 personnel to participate in Talisman Sabre, a two-yearly drill that begins on July 7 which will involve around 27,000 servicemen, a spokesman told AFP.

"We will participate in joint exercises with the US Marines rather than operating directly with the Australian military," he said.

But the participation was seen as part of efforts to strengthen defence ties between Japan and Australia, he added.

The drill, which takes place in Australia, is intended to "improve tactical expertise in amphibian operations and to strengthen Japan-US interoperability", an army statement said.

News of Japan's participation came as tensions remain high in the region, with increasing criticism of China's behaviour in the South China Sea, where it has accelerated building artificial islands in disputed waters.

In July last year the United States, India and Japan held week-long war games in the Pacific.

Australia has sided with the US in a program of strategic containment of China and Darwin is at the centre of a regional military buildup. But you’ll likely read better coverage of it in China than here. Later this month, as the monsoon subsides and soft mud becomes solid ground, the permanent rotation of US marines through Darwin will enter its next iteration. Another 1,150 marines will arrive in the Top End, bringing with them a plethora of vehicles, weapons and ammunition. In Chinese media, details of the rotation, along with the similarly underreported plans to use the Australian Cocos Islands as a base for American drones, are represented as what they in fact are: clear evidence that Australia is siding with the US in a program of strategic containment of China.

It is unsurprising that Australians are only vaguely aware that the first ever permanent peacetime deployment of foreign troops in the nation’s history is now occurring. The yarns spun by our politicians portray the deployment, which will swell to at least 2,500 marines over the next few years, as doing all things for all people. To our wary southeast Asian neighbours, the rotation is presented as a humanitarian aid and disaster relief operation, ready to spring into action at the first whiff of a meteorological event. Nationally, it is downplayed as a mere “troop rotation” and “interoperability” exercise, an end in itself with no greater military implication. Locally, an upsurge in jobs servicing the American troops is promised, as too is an influx of foreign currency to be spent on entertainment, infrastructure and tourism. Recent news of Chinese military construction in the South China Sea is troubling, but in the context of the unprecedented American regional military expansion that has been occurring for years it is unsurprising. If the Australian government desires to dampen regional tensions, and seek a path different from unquestioning support for the US in a zero-sum confrontation with China, an honest dialogue on how our foreign policy supports the national interest must be undertaken. While the nature and purpose of the Darwin marine rotation remains obscured, the prospects for this are bleak.

USA war planes including the eight-engine bombers and fast fighter jets will operate from RAAF Base Darwin and Tindal. The NT is set to be pounded by the world’s oldest and most destructive heavy bomber - the legendary B-52 Stratofortress - under the 25-year “force posture agreement” signed by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Defence Minister David Johnston during the annual AUSM talks Sydney today.

The 1950s era B-52 is the oldest aircraft in the US air force inventory and is at the leading edge of its strategic nuclear strike capability. The aircraft can carry nuclear warheads to targets anywhere on earth.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has caned Australia for two-timing – becoming overly dependent on China as a trading partner while expecting Washington to defend from a Beijing that is becoming more aggressive in the region – militarily and territorially.

so, without calling the new co-located rotational joint facilities "bases", we hear that: 1. they were her idea 2. they're about war with China 3. there will be more 4. USA not yet satisfied that Australia's position is sufficiently servile.

The former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has launched a wide-ranging attack on Australia’s “complacent” foreign policy, accusing the government of being harmfully dependent on the US. In a speech delivered at Melbourne University, Fraser said he was “ashamed” that Australia was led into the Iraq war on “falsehoods” and criticised the current deployment of American troops in Darwin. Around 2,500 American troops began rotating through Darwin for training last year, with US marines set to bring equipment such as amphibious assault craft, jets and helicopters to Australia, in a bid to enhance the US military position in the region.

They aren’t going to say ‘Canberra, we don’t like what people are doing here and we want to attack them and we want to use those forces you’ve so conveniently housed in Darwin.’ They’ll do it and we’ll read about it in the newspapers. Our prime minister will be told about it after the attack is made. Because that’s the way these things work. That, for me, is a total denial of Australian sovereignty and if we were ever independent, it’s a denial of Australian independence.