US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has \u201cemphasized the need for capable allies to contribute to the collective defense\u201d in a meeting overnight marking the 75th anniversary of Canberra\u2019s military alliance with Washington.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has long-called on Australia to hike defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP after years of hovering at around 2 per cent.<\/p>\n
The Albanese government has managed to abate that demand, with Defence Minister Richard Marles spearheading efforts to push the military budget up to 3 per cent of GDP by 2033.<\/p>\n
However, an American readout of Mr Marles\u2019 meeting with his counterpart, which also stressed the need for allies to \u201cinvest in their own sovereign security\u201d, showed it remained an issue for the US.<\/p>\n
Fronting media on Thursday morning, Mr Marles said Australia had \u201ca good story to tell in respect of our defence spending\u201d, saying the defence budget now sat at 2.8 per cent of GDP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combined increases in defence spending, which represents an increase of $117bn over the \u2026 decade, represents the biggest peace time increase in defence spending in our country\u2019s history,\u201d he told the ABC.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all of that puts us on this day ahead of most countries in NATO \u2013 Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt puts us ahead of almost every country in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we are really clearly a country which is pulling its weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the readout, Mr Hegseth \u201cnoted the alignment between US and Australian National Defense Strategies and also acknowledged that Canberra recognizes the gravity of maintaining a favorable balance of power in the region to ensure that both countries remain safe and prosperous\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also said the defence chiefs \u201cagreed to accelerate force posture initiatives at Australian bases, bolster cooperation in combined logistics, and build greater interoperability through joint exercises\u201d.<\/p>\n
The stronger commitment from the US came after it massively scaled back defence commitments to South Korea because of President Trump\u2019s \u201cvery good relationship\u201d with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.<\/p>\n
Mr Marles stopped short of criticising the move at the time, but said Australia remained \u201cvery concerned\u201d about North Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has \u201cemphasized the need for capable allies to contribute to the collective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[146891,146889,146900,50024,146887,146885,75109,146886,41370,64129,41565,146504,146879,37642,146878,62205,146877,146899,39347,42985,78778,22,23,146521,146487,21,62202,20369,2184,146478,36917,146874,146495,45991,146873,59474,146882,1198,39132,146481,1745,42553,146522,5301,146883,7536,146875,146533,33581,36526,122461,146895,59435,146893,2054,17777,146880,45017,146898,9875,41209,38691,12052,10098,146871,146901,146896,39660,36878,146515,146892,146872,146876,81813,146890,146884,72612,146894,146881,40599,38444,146888,42948,36556,62557,36628,146897,146485,63394,7444,146489,146517,275,31772],"class_list":["post-87339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-the-stronger-commitment","tag-s-very-good-relationship","tag-s-defence-spending","tag-s-history","tag-s-military-alliance","tag-117bn","tag-2-8","tag-2033-however","tag-41370","tag-3-5","tag-a-country","tag-a-favorable-balance","tag-a-good-story","tag-a-meeting","tag-a-thinly-veiled-message","tag-allies","tag-almost-every-country","tag-an-american-readout","tag-an-increase","tag-an-issue","tag-around-2","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-bases","tag-australian-national-defense-strategies","tag-austrlia","tag-both-countries","tag-britain","tag-canberra","tag-capable-allies","tag-cent","tag-cent-the-albanese-government","tag-combined-logistics","tag-cooperation","tag-defence-commitments","tag-defence-minister-richard-marles","tag-defence-minister-riched-marles","tag-defence-spending","tag-efforts","tag-force-posture-initiatives","tag-france","tag-gdp","tag-greater-interoperability","tag-hike","tag-his-counterpart","tag-italy","tag-its-weight","tag-joint-exercises","tag-meeting","tag-morning","tag-most-countries","tag-mr-hegseth","tag-mr-marles","tag-nato-germany","tag-newswire-politics","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korean-dictator-kim-jong-un-mr-marles","tag-our-country","tag-our-defence-spending","tag-power","tag-president-trump","tag-respect","tag-south-korea","tag-spain","tag-stern-message","tag-that-demand","tag-the-75th-anniversary","tag-the-abc","tag-the-albanese-government","tag-the-alignment","tag-the-biggest-peace-time-increase","tag-the-collective-defense","tag-the-combined-increases","tag-the-decade","tag-the-defence-budget","tag-the-defence-chiefs","tag-the-gravity","tag-the-indo-pacific","tag-the-military-budget","tag-the-move","tag-the-need","tag-the-readout","tag-the-region","tag-the-time","tag-the-trump-administration","tag-the-us","tag-the-us-fronting-media","tag-their-own-sovereign-security","tag-this-day","tag-thursday","tag-us-secretary","tag-war-pete-hegseth","tag-washington","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}