Australia remains firm on defence spending targets despite US pressure

SBS Australia

2 days ago

NATO countries have fallen in line with a request from the United States to increase defence spending. It's a request Australia is familiar with, having been delivered earlier this year by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to Defence Minister Richard Marles. But Mr Marles rebuffed the request then, and says events at the NATO conference in the Netherlands haven't changed the government's mind. He says this government has already lifted defence spending sufficiently. "Obviously, a very significant decision has been made here in relation to European defence spending and that is fundamentally a matter for NATO. We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there, and the kind of defence force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and then to resource that. And what that has seen is the biggest peace time increase in Australian defence spending that we have seen in our history. Now, that is a story which is understood here." The increase Mr Marles is speaking of involves Australia lifting its defence spending from two per cent of gross domestic product to 2.3 per cent by the 2033-2034 financial year. The US has requested that commitment be lifted to 3.5 per cent. Some experts in Australia are calling for a lift to three per cent. The opposition's defence spokesman, Angus Taylor, hasn't named a number, but says defence spending is still insufficient under this government. "Well, there's a lot of areas in the Defence Strategic Review that are clearly underfunded. Our drone and counter-drone technologies, as the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, laid out yesterday. Making sure that the Henderson sub facility is properly-funded. The hardening of our northern facilities at a time like this incredibly important. Making sure we've got domestic missile manufacturing capability, as the government said they will do, but there's no sign of making progress on this. All of these are areas that have to be properly funded, alongside AUKUS- the submarines- and frigates. There is no shortage of things that need to be properly executed and properly funded, and they are not being right now under this government." Matthew Sussex is from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra. He says the events at the conference in The Hague will put further pressure on the government's stance-with one caveat. "This also does increase the pressure on Australia to increase its defence spending. Whether it does or not is something, I think, is still a bit of an open question. And certainly I think there's no harm in waiting until what the American review into the AUKUS program actually says-the 30-day review that is due to report soon." Elsewhere at the NATO meeting, US President Donald Trump didn't show up to a joint meeting of Indo-Pacific partners who were present. Mr Marles says that didn't affect the quality of that meeting. "No, it was a really important meeting with the Secretary-General. And we re-affirmed in the meeting how important the two theatres are to each other. The point is made is that in Japan, in Korea, and in New Zealand, we have three countries which are deeply important in terms of Australia's strategic interests. In respect of all of them, we are really at a high point of our bilateral relationship, and we are working increasingly as a team. But we all see how significantly what is playing out in Europe is influencing the Indo-Pacific." But Mr Trump not showing up does play into the narrative that the government can't get a meeting with Mr Trump, especially after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's meeting with him on the side of the G-7 conference in Canada was cancelled. More than five months into Mr Trump's second term as U-S President, no Australian minister has yet met with him face-to-face. Whether that hurts the government on a domestic political level is a matter in and of itself, but it's something the opposition is nevertheless keen to exploit. Mr Taylor says an Australian Prime Minister must invest time in building a personal rapport with whoever the President of the US happens to be at any given time. "Right now it seems that the Prime Minister is better able to get a meeting with the President of China than the President of the United States. The United States has fought with us in every major war, and that alliance is incredibly important to this country, regardless of who is leading the United States. That alliance really matters. The Prime Minister needs to get serious about the personal relationship that is necessary to nurture that alliance." There were some things proposed at the NATO meeting that Australia has agreed to. Australia will deploy a surveillance aircraft and 100 defence personnel to Poland for three months, ending in November, in order to provide visibility for key supply routes into Ukraine. On that front, the government has also slapped sanctions on a further 37 individuals and seven financial entities linked to key Russian industries, as well as it what it calls promulgators of Russian propaganda.
And, Mr Marles has signed an agreement with the NATO Support and Procurement Organisation, which will increase co-operation in non-combat activities, including logistics, and capability acquisition.