Washington| The new AUKUS defence arrangement should be about “projecting power” north to the Indo-Pacific region to maintain peace, not just protecting the Australian coastline, Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s ambassador to the US, has told military experts.

In his first official intervention since Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States created the alliance around a nuclear-powered submarine deal, Mr Sinodinos also told conservative think tank the Hudson Institute that regime change in China was never a part of the plan, despite Beijing’s increasing aggression and economic coercion in the region.