(Bloomberg) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his Australian counterpart agreed Wednesday on the need to “swiftly execute” defense collaboration including a stronger force posture, amid growing Chinese military power in the region.
Meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on the margins of a regional defense summit in the Philippines, the two sides agreed to boost investment at Australian air bases and enhance joint logistics capacity, according to a US statement.
The two leaders “agreed on the need to swiftly execute force posture collaboration,” it said, adding they also discussed “opportunities to better coordinate on US and Australian approaches to regional deterrence and support common-sense strategies to preserve” a favorable balance of power in the Pacific.
The term “force posture” refers to the deployment of US military assets, including rotational ones at naval facilities in Western Australia and a Marine base in the Northern Territory. While the US operates joint communications and surveillance facilities in Australia, there are no permanent bases and US forces operate out of shared Australian defense infrastructure.
Under the AUKUS plan to collaborate on nuclear-powered submarine development, the two countries plan to rotationally deploy US submarines at a navy base near Perth starting in late 2027. As part of that, a US submarine recently arrived in Australia to undergo maintenance, with the two nations using the visit to train Australians on repairing US submarines.
Hegseth also met with his Japanese counterpart earlier on Wednesday, and is expected to meet Southeast Asian defense ministers later in the day.
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