Popular News From Popular Sites: Australia leans toward buying Japan subs to upgrade fleet: sources

Monday, September 1, 2014

Australia leans toward buying Japan subs to upgrade fleet: sources

Australian Prime Minister Abbott and Japanese Prime Minister Abe are pictured during a tour of the Rio Tinto West Angelas iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and Australia are leaning towards a multibillion-dollar sale by Tokyo of a fleet of stealth submarines to Canberra's military in a move that could rile an increasingly assertive China, people familiar with the talks said. An agreement is still some months away, three people said, but the unprecedented sale of off-the-shelf vessels based on the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force's Soryu class sub is emerging as the likeliest option. Such a deal would signal a major expansion of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's controversial drive for a more active military after decades of pacifism. Rival China regularly accuses Abe of reviving Japan's wartime militarism.




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