Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pushed back on US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s calls for Australia to ramp up its defence spending to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
Hegseth made the request to Defence Minister Richard Marles when the pair met on Friday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, where the US defence chief later delivered a strident speech warning China posed a real and potentially imminent threat to the region.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at a bridge opening in Hobart on Sunday.Credit: AAP
But on Sunday, Albanese defended Australia’s defence spending and policy settings when asked about Hegseth’s remarks, and whether Australia would lift its defence budget to 3 per cent of gross domestic product – the figure the Trump administration has previously nominated.
“What we’ll do is we’ll determine our defence policy, and we’ve invested just across the forward [estimates], an additional $10 billion in defence. What we’ll do is continue to provide for investing in our capability but also investing in our relationships in the region,” Albanese said at a press conference in Tasmania.
“Our position with regard to Taiwan is very clear, has been for a long period of time, which is a bipartisan position to support the status quo.”
The prime minister’s comments contrast with those made by Marles, who said last week that Australia was “absolutely up for having this conversation” with the US, about increasing its defence spending.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth addresses the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images
Hegseth’s speech at the dialogue, delivered to an audience of top defence officials on Saturday, has also provoked a furious response from China, which said he had “smeared and attacked China”. It accused the US of being the “biggest factor undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region”.
“The United States has deployed offensive weapons in the South China Sea, fanned the flames and created tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, turning the Asia-Pacific region into a ‘powder keg’, causing deep concern among regional countries,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
