PM to resolve row with US on cost of ‘Pivot in Asia’ troops

Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to resolve the dispute over costs that was hampering the US’s ‘pivot in Asia’ plan.

Malcolm Turnbull has vowed that the dispute over costs that was hampering full implementation of Barack Obama’s “pivot in Asia” plan, using US marine exercises in the Northern Territory, will be resolved.

The Prime Minister will discuss the issue with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter in Washington this week, with the aim of finalising the agreement on the 2011 plan, which the US President announced in Darwin.

Mr Turnbull said on his arrival in New York on the weekend that the negotiations on cost-sharing for the rotation of up to 2500 marines a year through Darwin was an ongoing negotiation.

“I expect them to be resolved,” he said. “These are negotiations that are going on between officials.”

But the Prime Minister said he would be discussing the deployment of marines with Mr Carter as part of his discussions on the “very strong” Australia-US alliance.

The Weekend Australian revealed that as Mr Turnbull prepared to see the US President at the UN in New York there were growing concerns that the original plan was not yet fully implemented and that a new president in Washington could restrict the US commitment.

The announcement in Darwin in 2011 was billed as Mr Obama’s big new commitment to Asia, was endorsed by Julia Gillard and agreed to by the Abbott government in 2014.

But a continued tussle over shared costs for the marine deployments has prevented the gradual increase of the six-monthly rotations from the first 1150 soldiers to the target of at least 2500 by the end of this year.

The fifth rotation of US marines for six months’ combined training with Australian and other forces in April this year was 1250, half the final target, after four previous rotations of less than half.

Although the training rotations at the Robertson Barracks in Darwin, which also involve aircraft and pre-positioned military hardware for a rapid deployment force, have begun, a fight over the cost of deploying the marines has stalled the increase in numbers.

The ongoing bureaucratic battle has also created concern that a new US administration would not follow through with Mr Obama’s vision for the equivalent of a battalion to be effectively based in Australia.

Regional allies are also concerned about the restrictions as the US faces pressure on its bases in Southeast Asia and the US congress puts pressure on allies to pay a bigger share of the cost of having US troops training overseas.

Mr Turnbull said the Defence Department secretary, Dennis Richardson, had recently been in Washington to “follow up on the discussions”.

Julie Bishop told The Australian negotiations were expected to be completed soon and there was always going to be some delay.