Japan is watching anxiously after Australian leader Tony Abbott, one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's closest allies in the Asia-Pacific region, was ousted in a party leadership vote this week.
At stake is not only a multibillion-dollar deal to build submarines, but also U.S. and Japanese plans to work more closely with Australia in providing a bulwark against an increasingly belligerent China.
Abbott, who was defeated in the vote late Monday by rival Malcolm Turnbull, was a close confidant of Abe and shared a similar vision of creating a new kind of security triangle with Washington.