The Albanese government has lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing over a live weapons drill between Australia and New Zealand, as the Defence Minister reveals China is yet to give a ‘satisfactory’ explanation.
Xi wants submission from Australia, not stability. Why make it easy for the Chinese navy? Let’s raise the cost to Beijing, not give it a free ride to demean us.
Australia’s biggest military exercise Talisman Sabre will be hosted in cooperation with Papua New Guinea this year amid moves to bind the nations’ military forces more closely than ever.
The Coalition has accused the Albanese government of keeping Australians in the dark on Chinese ‘gunboat diplomacy’.
A Chinese naval task group was sailing just 150 nautical miles off Sydney on Wednesday in an unprecedented projection of power.
As if the world wasn’t bleak enough already. According to the nation’s intelligence chief, it is only going to get worse. There is no longer a single threat that stands out on the priority list.
One of Australia’s top naval officers has called out Beijing’s aggressive conduct in the South China Sea and the severing of undersea cables by Chinese vessels.
Japan is ramping up its bid to sell $10bn worth of new warships to Australia, dispatching one of its Mogami-class frigates for port visits to Darwin and Fremantle in coming weeks.
China accused the RAAF P-8A Poseidon of ‘deliberately intruding into China’s airspace’ while Australia lodged an official protest over the incident that risked the lives of up to a dozen Australians.
A Rolls-Royce program set to supply reactor cores for Australia’s nuclear submarines has been branded as ‘unachievable’ in a blow to the nation’s AUKUS ambitions.
It is one of the clearest red lines drawn by the government since US President Donald Trump announced his Gaza Strip “take over” plan.
The small but strategically important Cook Islands has blindsided its neighbours with the news its Prime Minister is heading to Beijing to sign a murky ‘strategic partnership’ with China.
Former special forces veteran Heston Russell wants an unconditional apology from the ABC acknowledging that he did not shoot at unarmed civilians from a helicopter in Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump has flagged his support for the complex defence arrangement with Australia after the Albanese government delivered a $798m payment.
Australia has made its first AUKUS down payment to the US as the Albanese government looks to lock-in Trump administration support for the submarine program.
A report has blamed ABC lawyers for failing to pass on complaints by former commando Heston Russell that extra gunshots had been edited into an ABC news report.
Home Affairs has urged critical infrastructure operators to keep Chinese AI app DeepSeek off their systems but stopped short of an enforced ban like that imposed on government users
Peter Dean has lashed the government for being ‘exceptionally slow’ on addressing the defence force’s workforce crisis, warning young recruits are struggling with the lack of connection to the outside world.
Peter Leahy has warned a decline in national pride is at the heart of the Australian Defence Force’s personnel crisis.
Richard Marles says he is ‘excited’ to work with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth after a phone call with his newly confirmed counterpart on Wednesday.
Ukraine has demanded Moscow produce video evidence that Australian soldier Oscar Jenkins is alive after Russia’s ambassador told the Albanese government he was in custody, not dead as previously feared.
Once again a Canberra ‘mate’ is getting a top job, but in my view and many others, he simply doesn’t deserve it.
Jacqui Lambie is threatening to roll out a nationwide ad campaign mobilising voters’ support on veterans’ welfare, as she criticises Angus Campbell’s top diplomatic posting.
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will take on an extra role as ‘government efficiency’ spokeswoman – evoking Elon Musk’s role under the US Trump administration.
Trump and his administration are likely to speak kindly of AUKUS. This will be highly deceptive for Australians.
Former defence chief Angus Campbell has been appointed as Australia’s next ambassador to Brussels, in a diplomatic posting that will require all the retired general’s military nous.
Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese present a bipartisan threat of clear and immediate action against the Kremlin if Australian foreign fighter Oscar Jenkins is confirmed to have been executed.
Australians are being encouraged to take a more proactive role in uncovering foreign spies, with intelligence agencies warning that more private citizens and businesses are being targeted than ever before.
In his final foreign policy speech, Joe Biden declared the US is ‘winning the worldwide competition’, citing the AUKUS defence pact as a pivotal achievement in countering China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.
The Albanese government provides no rationale or narrative for its disconnected actions. Everything is spin. We’ve seldom seen a government this poor in such critical fields at such a dangerous time.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/page/3