Australia highlights growing US military presence ahead of AUSMIN talks

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – China, climate change, strategic competition in the Pacific, and the AUKUS nuclear submarine project, will be the focus of talks between Australia-US defence and foreign ministers this week, the U.S. top diplomat to Australia said on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles held meetings in Washington on Monday, a day before the annual AUSMIN talks in Annapolis, Marylands, with Marles highlighting the expanding role of a U.S. Marine rotational force in northern Australia and defence industry cooperation.

“We’re seeing America’s force posture in Australia grow really significantly, AUKUS is part of that, but it’s not the only part of that,” Marles said in talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a statement.

Under the AUKUS programme, Washington will sell three nuclear-powered submarines to Australia next decade, and with a U.S. election looming, Australia’s Wong said in Washington there was bipartisan U.S. political support for the programme.

U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, told ABC Television that China and climate change – a priority for the Pacific Islands, where the U.S. and Australia are competing with China for security ties – would be discussed.

“Obviously with China being such an important both trading partner and competitor for both of us, that is obviously one of the main topics,” she said.

“We are also talking about what we can do together to fight climate change, (and) to help the Pacific Islands to build critical infrastructure to connect them,” she added.

As part of co-operating on environmental and resource issues, Australia will spend A$200 million ($130.02 million) to upgrade ground station facilities in its remote central desert to process data from NASA’s Landsat Next satellite.

NASA’s Landsat Next is an earth observation programme the U.S. space agency says will provide early warnings on the onset of fires or ice melting. The programme is scheduled to begin in 2030.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the satellite data would also be used to target resource exploration in Australia, as the two nation’s develop a supply chain for critical minerals.

The U.S. and its allies are seeking to reduce China’s market dominance of rare earths and critical minerals used in electric vehicles and defence technology.

($1 = 1.5382 Australian dollars)