Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to tell Donald Trump Australia lifting its weight on defence spending amid AUKUS uncertainty
Mr Albanese will meet President Trump on Tuesday on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada amid growing uncertainty about the future of the AUKUS pact.
The Trump administration has announced a review of the more than $350 billion pact after calling on Australia to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.
Mr Albanese will seek to reassure Mr Trump that Australia is contributing meaningfully to the alliance and the regional security architecture.
'(We'll focus on) what Australia contributes - the potential that AUKUS has to allow for a range of benefits to the US,' Mr Albanese said at a press conference on Sunday.
'Australia has already contributed $500 million (to AUKUS). We have currently over 100 personnel in Hawaii working on maintenance, working on skills.
'This is about making a contribution … AUKUS Pillar I is very much in Australia's national interest, but it's also in the interests of the United States.'
The White House recently asked Australia to lift defence spending from two per cent of GDP to 3.5 per cent.
While the Albanese government has committed to a target of 2.3 per cent, Mr Albanese pushed back on suggestions that Australia isn't pulling its weight.
'We have doubled defence spending over a recent period of time,' Mr Albanese told reporters in Seattle ahead of his meeting with President Trump.
'We have $57 billion of additional defence investment over the next 10 years, and we have more than $10 billion of additional investment in defence over the forward estimates.
'We will give whatever capability Australia needs to defend our national interest.'
Former prime minister Scott Morrison, who brokered the AUKUS pact, has urged calm in response to the US Pentagon's AUKUS review.
'No, I'm not (concerned),' Mr Morrison told Sky News on Thursday.
'It's totally within their remit … Like with any arrangement, you've always got to keep making the case.'
Defence Minister Richard Marles also downplayed alarm, noting that Canberra had been made aware of the review and was engaged in the process.
'We've known about the review for some time, we welcome it and we will engage with it,' Mr Marles said.
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