Islamic State war: Malcolm Turnbull considers sending warship to aid France’s fight in Syria
THE Federal Government is considering sending a warship to help France fight Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq as pressure intensifies for Australia to do more.
- War with the Islamic State? Not so fast
- Police arrest dozens, weapons seized
- The ‘only way to defeat IS’: Military force
- First of 12,000 Syrian refugees to arrive on Tuesday
THE Federal Government is considering sending a warship to help France fight Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq as pressure intensifies for Australia to do more.
The Advertiser revealed in October that France had asked for a Royal Australian Navy frigate to join them and the United States in the Persian Gulf.
Pressure on Australia to do more in the region has ramped up in the wake of the recent atrocities, and Defence Minister Marise Payne has confirmed the Government is still thinking about sending a ship.
“The request from the French to send a warship to join a French Navy taskforce in the Persian Gulf is still under consideration by the Government,” a spokesman said.
More than 150 crew would join Task Force 50, set to be led by the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to support air strikes against IS.
Mr Turnbull was asked about the possibility of deploying a warship when he visited Adelaide recently — before IS claimed responsibility for massacring about 130 people in Paris — and said there were no “plans to change the nature of our deployment in that theatre”.
“That is not to say they won’t change in the future. Just as we have to be agile in terms of innovation policy, we have to be agile in terms of our approach to the security challenges we face,” he said.
France has been bombing the Syrian city of Raqqa in retaliation for the Paris attacks.
Mr Turnbull emphasised the need for a political solution but said discussions with our allies would continue.
“Australia is making a very significant contribution and has done for some time and will consider what future contributions and what the shape of it will be in the light of those discussions,” he said.
Senator Payne told ABC radio that any moves would be carefully considered and that any peacekeeping role — hinted at by Mr Turnbull — would not happen for some time.
Senator Payne will deliver a keynote address in Adelaide on Tuesday at the Submarine Institute of Australia’s annual conference.
The conference’s focus will be the Future Submarine project, but hordes of Defence hardheads are certain to be in town discussing the terrorism attacks.
The chairman of French shipbuilders DCNS, Hervé Guillou is visiting from Paris to speak, and the crowd will also hear German shipbuilders TKMS and the Japanese discuss their approach to the competitive evaluation process.
Opposition defence spokesman Stephen Conroy will push for Labor’s preferred option of 12 submarines being locally built.
Having just eight or having eight with an optional extra four would ignore commercial and strategic realities, he is set to say.
Meanwhile, the Government says the first Syrian refugee family will arrive in Perth within 24 hours — the first of an expected 12,000 arrivals.