The Australia-Japan Security Partnership, with John Langtry

Australia and Japan as Security Partners -
The New Dimension in Bilateral Relations

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gives new meaning to the interconnectedness of Australia and Japan, above and beyond the context of the rise of China under Xi Jinping with ambitions to be the central player in the Indo-Pacific region.

Our speaker in June is John Langtry, a recently-retired diplomat who knows the region intimately and has headed up both DFAT's North East Asia and East Asia branches. He will speak on the Australia-Japan relationship in a regional strategic context over the last decade. He will also talk about Mongolia as a case study of how Australia approaches relations with the countries of North Asia in this context based on his experience as Australia's first resident Ambassador in Ulaanbaatar.

Speaker bio

John Langtry retired from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 2019 , his most recent post being as Australia's Ambassador to Mongolia. Prior to that he served in Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Berlin, and as Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, and successively of the DFAT North East Asia and the East Asia branches in Canberra.

John is a graduate of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and speaks Japanese and Chinese, among other languages.

John's talk will be followed by a networking reception.

The event is hosted at the offices of corporate member KPMG. You are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend.

Registrations are now open. Sign up online and pay either by Paypal (link from registration) or direct to our bank account.