US military to spend $300m on Darwin infrastructure upgrade

The US military is set to spend more than $300 million in Darwin on naval construction.

Australian Foreign Minister Marine Payne. Picture: AAP

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has confirmed the US military is set to spend more than $300 million in Darwin on naval construction as she prepares to sit down with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for talks.

A recent draft US congressional bill revealed a total of $US211.5m ($305.9m) had been ­allocated for new “navy military construction” in Darwin.

A government source told The Australian the money was believed to be for existing infrastructure and was to be administered by a US entity called Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific. “There are significant plans under the US force posture initia­tive … I signed an agreement on some of those plans with former defence secretary Jim Mattis myself,” Senator Payne told Sky News.

“What it’s enabled us to do is to work more closely in the region.”

Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner appeared blindsided when news of the planned US defence spend first emerged earlier this week and yesterday said American investment was “always welcome”.

“Senior officers from the NT government are liaising with the Australian Department of Defence on further details around the $300m infrastructure investment,” Mr Gunner said.

“The NT government continues to lobby the Australian government to support jobs and invest in a ship lift in Darwin Port. This is where we’d like to see infrastructure investment.” Australian and US governments have jointly pledged to spend $2 billion on infrastructure in northern Australia to support the US Force Posture Initiative.

About $1.1bn of that is expected to flow to the NT. US documents show that in addition to the $US211.5m allocated to navy construction projects in Darwin, the US also planned to invest $US70.6m on air force military construction at RAAF Base Tindal, near Katherine.

Darwin Port was controversially leased to Chinese firm Landbridge for 99 years in 2015, with new US ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse saying earlier this month that America was still concerned over the arrangement.

The Defence Department has previously denied reports that US and Australian militaries are in discussions about a new naval ­facility at Glyde Point outside Darwin and The Australian understands that the Territory government has no knowledge of any renewed discussions.

Senator Payne will meet Mr Pompeo twice this week; first at the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Bangkok then at the AUSMIN talks in Sydney. It will be the first annual bilateral talks attended by Australia’s new Defence Minister, Linda Reynolds, and recently sworn-in US Defence Secretary Mark Esper.

“These face-to-face meetings give us a unique chance to get into the nitty gritty of the issues that we work on together constantly,” Senator Payne told Sky News.