Australia is standing firm against US demands to increase defence spending amid growing strategic threats from China and Russia, putting it at odds with European leaders who endorsed committing 5 per cent of their economy to security at a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation overnight.
As a sharp divide emerged on the eve of the meeting among Asia-Pacific and European allies over how to respond to geopolitical tensions, NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte expressed concern over China’s “rapid military build-up” and how Beijing was co-operating with Moscow and prolonging the war in Ukraine.
