By Eryk Bagshaw
Hiroshima: US President Joe Biden will ask Congress to empower Australian manufacturers as a domestic source for arms manufacturing, binding the two countries’ defence production together as they confront the growing military might of China.
After meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the G7 in Hiroshima on Saturday, Biden said he would ask Congress to list Australia under Title III of the Defence Production Act, clearing the way for Australian companies to be given the same treatment as their US counterparts as part of the $368 billion AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.
The bilateral was the sixth meeting between the leaders since Albanese became prime minister in May last year.Credit: Christopher Jue
“Doing so would streamline technological and industrial base collaboration, accelerate and strengthen AUKUS implementation,” the president said.
Albanese said he had pushed for the critical designation since the two leaders met in San Diego in March and the president’s support would mean Australia would become a domestic source under the Defence Production Act.
Biden said he would also deploy new United States Coast Guard vessels in the Pacific in early 2024 as China ramps up its patrols and territorial claims in the region.
The G7 leaders said they remained “seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas” and for the first time described peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait “as indispensable to the security and prosperity in the international community”.
Anthony Albanese says he understands the circumstances that caused Joe Biden to cancel his visit to Australia.Credit: Christopher Jue
The declaration escalated the G7’s leaders’ criticism of China at the same time as its members - the US, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Canada and Japan, claimed their “policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development”.
The joint leaders’ statement, issued as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Hiroshima on Sunday, heaped pressure on Beijing to use its diplomatic weight to end the war in Ukraine.
“We call on China to press Russia to stop its military aggression, and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” the G7 said.
China’s Foreign Ministry defended Beijing’s relationship with Moscow.
“China always opposes unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law or mandate from the Security Council,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday.
“China has always carried out normal economic and trade cooperation with Russia and other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.”
The meeting between Albanese and Biden followed Washington’s offer to train Ukrainian pilots on American-made F-16 fighter jets as Kyiv prepares to launch a new offensive against Russian forces.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that the US will work with allies “to determine when planes will be delivered, who will be delivering them and how many”.
The visit from the Ukrainian leader is the highest-profile overseas trip taken by Zelensky since the start of the war last year.
Russia launched its ninth wave of missile strikes at the Ukrainian capital on Saturday.
“Fifteen months of Russia’s aggression has cost thousands of lives, inflicted immense suffering on the people of Ukraine, and imperilled access to food and energy for many of the world’s most vulnerable people,” the G7 leaders said in a joint statement after announcing fresh economic restrictions and arms commitments for Kyiv.
“Our support for Ukraine will not waver.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has used the war in Ukraine to sharpen the focus of the world’s leaders on the potential for future conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
“Any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force is unacceptable anywhere in the world,” said Kishida.
Kishida, Biden, Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were due to travel to Australia for a Quad meeting in Sydney after the G7 next week, but the summit was cancelled due to the US debt crisis. The rescheduled Quad meeting was due to take place in Hiroshima late on Saturday night.
Biden apologised to Albanese for cancelling his trip to Australia and said negotiations with Republicans were “in their closing stages”. He said he was confident the US “will be able to avoid a default” as Washington teeters on the edge of an economic cliff that could have major consequences for the global economy if the deadline of June 1 is not met.
“I’m sorry I’m not taking a plane to Australia,” said Biden as the pair signed a climate and critical minerals’ pact.“All politics is local, but friendship is permanent.”
Albanese said he “would have done exactly the same thing”.
The bilateral was the sixth meeting between the leaders since Albanese became prime minister in May last year.
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