Australia, which has watched China’s aggression in the region with increasing unease, is making a major long-term investment to boost its military and strengthen links with the U.S., Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the nation Wednesday.
In a live-streamed speech at the Australian Defense Force Academy, Mr. Morrison outlined a $186 billion, 10-year plan designed to support a bigger, more aggressively equipped military. The plan includes working with the United States to develop missile defense for deployed forces while stockpiling long-range missiles that can protect shipping lanes.
Mr. Morrison’s plan also calls for new or increased investments in military satellites, drones, enhanced cyber capabilities and an underwater surveillance system. Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, carried an account of the speech Wednesday.
With the Pentagon in 2018 announcing a major shift in U.S. military focus to combating nation-state rivals, and in particular China, Mr. Morrison argued the struggle for influence in the Pacific will be a defining issue of the coming years.
“The Indo-Pacific is the epicenter of rising strategic competition,” he said. “It is the focus of the dominant global contest of our age.”
The conservative prime minister, who enjoys good relations with President Trump, added that Australia needs to prepare for a post-pandemic world being “poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly.” Clashing maritime and land sovereignty claims are also creating tensions from the South China Sea and the East China Sea to the border between China and India.
The 10-year plan will push Australia’s defense budget, currently just below 1.9%, above the 2% benchmark Mr. Trump has targeted for NATO allies to meet. Up to $11.75 billion will be spent on fighter aircraft and more that $6 billion will be earmarked for the research and development of high-speed, long-range weapons, such as hypersonic weapons.
U.S. security analyst Paul Buchanan told Stars and Stripes the Australian moves mirror the U.S. military’s efforts to “harden” their defenses against Beijing.
Washington and Canberra make “no bones about the fact that China is considered to be the prime adversary in the Western Pacific,” Mr. Buchanan said.
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