US piles fresh pressure on Australia over military spending
Australia will face renewed pressure to increase its defence budget during high-level talks in Washington this week.
Australia will face renewed pressure to increase its defence budget during high-level talks in Washington this week after the White House pledged a “determined” effort to get Canberra to spend more to help deter conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong will meet US counterparts Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio for the nations’ annual AUSMIN talks on Monday, local time, with concerns over China and critical minerals set to top the agenda.
The trip comes days after the Trump administration released its national security strategy, warning the US would no longer tolerate “free-riding” on American power. It said the US expected its allies to spend “far more” of their GDP on defence, adding that “in our dealings with Taiwan and Australia we maintain our determined rhetoric on increased defence spending”.
“The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over,” the strategy said.
Mr Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, underscored the message in a speech on Saturday, saying NATO countries had agreed to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence, and the Trump administration wanted to apply the standard to its allies across the world. “In a few years, thanks to President (Donald) Trump’s visionary leadership, we will have our allies – which include some of the wealthiest and most productive countries in the world – once again fielding combat credible militaries and more state-revived defence industrial industries,” he said.
The strategy says the US’s primary strategic focus will be on preventing war in the Indo-Pacific and warns Beijing that America “cannot allow any nation to become so dominant that it could threaten our interests”.
The renewed defence funding push comes after the US President gave Anthony Albanese some breathing room on the issue in their October meeting at the White House, declaring: “I’d always like more, but they have to do what they have to do. You can only do so much.”
The Prime Minister has declared Australia will decide its own defence budget, while indicating a potential increase in military funding next year from the current 2 per cent of GDP.
The AUSMIN talks come amid intense pressure on Mr Hegseth, who faces war-crimes allegations over an alleged “double tap” strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, in which two survivors of the first strike were killed by the second, and adverse findings that he put US personnel at risk by sharing sensitive military details on an unclassified system.
The meeting will aim to bed down the nations’ recent critical minerals deal and follows the Pentagon’s endorsement of the AUKUS pact in its recently completed “America First” review of the submarine program.
Mr Marles will discuss proposed improvements to AUKUS and “critical deadlines” that must be met at a trilateral meeting with Mr Hegseth and British Defence Secretary John Healey on Wednesday.
He will fly to the US from Japan, where he expressed concern during a meeting with counterpart Koizumi Shinjiro over the actions of a Chinese fighter jet a day earlier that locked its fire-control radar on Japanese aircraft in international airspace.
Mr Marles said Australian aircraft had experienced similar incidents in encounters with the PLA-Air Force and vowed to work with Japan to counter such conduct.
“We understand that there will be interactions between our respective defence forces and indeed the defence forces of China, but our absolute expectation is that those interactions are safe and are professional,” he said. “And we will continue to stand with Japan in working with Japan to assert the rules‑based order in this region, and we will do it resolutely.”
Mr Marles and Mr Koisumi agreed to meet annually with their defence and intelligence chiefs for new enhanced bilateral consultations.
The Chinese jet’s actions represented a serious military threat, signalling the Japanese F-15s that they were about to come under attack. Relations between the nations have sunk to their lowest level in years after Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warned last month that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger Japanese military action.
Japan’s former top diplomat in Australia Shingo Yamagami last week accused the Albanese government of failing to publicly support his country after a senior Chinese diplomat threatened Ms Takaichi.
“If you stick that filthy neck where it doesn’t belong, it’s going to get sliced off,” China’s consul-general in Osaka, Xue Jian, declared.
Mr Marles did not specifically mention Ms Takaichi, but said Australia and Japan were closer partners than ever. “There is no country in the world today with whom we are more strategically aligned than Japan,” he said.
The new US security strategy confirms the US’s commitment to working with Australia, Japan and India through the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which has been strained by the White House’s punishing tariffs against New Delhi and its embrace of Pakistan. It says it will also seek Australia’s help, together with other nations, to help reset the world’s trade relationship with China by encouraging Beijing to focus on domestic consumption rather than exporting its “enormous excess capacity”.
This year’s AUSMIN talks were due to be hosted by Australia but Mr Hegseth and Mr Rubio were unable to travel.
Mr Marles said: “Australia’s Alliance with the United States is fundamental to our national security, built on our shared commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. AUSMIN is an invaluable forum to set the strategic direction for the Alliance, including on defence and security. I look forward to advancing our strong defence partnership, including through AUKUS and our longstanding US Force Posture Initiatives in Australia.”
Senator Wong said Australia and the US were “working to shape the Indo-Pacific for the better”.
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