US Colonel James Schnelle is stood down from his job of commanding the largest contingent of Marines ever to rotate through the Top End after being caught drink-driving, a Darwin court hears.

Colonel James Schnelle, 48, appeared in Darwin Local Court this morning, charged with medium-range drink-driving.

The court heard he failed a random breath test on Darwin's Mitchell Street in the early hours of a Sunday morning late last month.

No conviction was recorded, but the court heard Colonel Schnelle had been stood down from his job of commanding the largest contingent of Marines ever to rotate through the Top End.

Colonel Schnelle is the highest ranking US Marine in Darwin, and is a decorated commander with three service awards.

"This is a man of very high character, he has no convictions anywhere in the world and has contributed immensely to society," Colonel Schnelle's lawyer told the court. "The US Marines are going to deal with him very harshly." His lawyer said any conviction would affect any assignments or promotions he could hope to get in future.

A US Marine charged with the violent assault of a female public servant in a car park at Enoggera has had his bail amended to allow him to return to Brisbane.

Taylor Wyatt Elwood, 20, was arrested at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane's north-west on July 3 after allegedly dragging the woman, aged in her 60s, out of her parked car and assaulting her.

He was further charged with allegedly assaulting an off-duty police officer who intervened, and wilful damage to the woman's car.

The woman was taken to hospital by ambulance for treatment of facial injuries and later released. In July Mr Elwood was permitted by the court to relocate to Robertson Barracks in Darwin as part of the US Marine Rotational Unit.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make a historic visit to Darwin this November to help cement modern day relations with Australia.

Shinzo Abe is scheduled to be welcomed to the Northern Territory by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in November, before both men fly to Port Moresby for the APEC meeting of regional leaders.

Japan's massive $34 billion INPEX gas pipeline project will be the focus of Mr Abe's visit, but closer military ties are also expected to be high on the agenda when the two leaders meet.

Mr Abe's is the first visit to Darwin by a Japanese leader since forces struck the key military port, killing more than 250 people across multiple bombings in 1942 and 1943.

Top end diplomatic tango: Japan and US compete for attention. In mid-November Australia's top end will be the stopover point for regional leaders straddling two major meetings, the East Asia Summit in Singapore and the APEC gathering in Port Moresby a few days later. The ABC can reveal that during the brief period between the two summits, United States Vice-President Mike Pence will stay in Cairns, at the same time that Mr Morrison hosts his Japanese counterpart in Darwin. Mr Pence, who met with Mr Turnbull during a visit to Sydney in 2017, is expected to fly into the APEC summit each day from northern Queensland rather than staying overnight in Port Moresby.

A 2014 military agreement means Australia is host to the US military, from where it can launch hostilities against our neighbours in the Indo-Pacific-South East Asia region.

The Force Posture Agreement allows up to 2500 US Marines to be stationed in Darwin for six months each year. They are equipped for immediate deployment and train for war in exercises with the Australian Defence Forces.

The agreement allows US fighter planes and bombers access to Australia’s airfields and airport facilities, and US naval vessels access to Australia’s seaports.

The agreement affirms (in Article VII) that the United States Forces and their contractors “shall have unimpeded access to Agreed Facilities and Areas for all matters relating to the pre-positioning and storage of defence equipment and supplies including delivery, management, inspection, use, maintenance and removal of such pre-positioned material”.

This means that Australia has become a base for the US military, which currently has its sights set on the islands claimed by China in the South China Sea. Some commentators believe the US aims to put pressure on China by blocking the straits of Malacca, China's major shipping route.

who controls and directs the US Marines on board Australian naval ships, and who directs the Australian ships with the US marines on board?

The deployment of US marines to Darwin announced by Julia Gillard in 2011 was partly aimed at countering the rise of China and anchoring a US presence in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes.

“China was a part of the backdrop of that, not because we want to use the marines in Darwin to go to war with China, but because their presence sends a message to all the countries in the region that the US is going to be engaged here,” he told The Australian.

“We had to be careful and work through the Australian government. We didn’t want to ­antagonise China, but we wanted to show the US working with ­allies like Australia in that part of the world.”

Mr Rhodes called Australia a “top tier” US ally who shared “the same basic view of the world”.