Anthony Albanese is in the final stages of an official visit to Washington. He wanted to engage the president of the United States, Joe Biden, on a range of policy fronts during the four-day trip. Here are the key takeaways from the visit. Trouble with nuclear submarines When the prime minister arrived in Washington, dysfunction in the legislature was on full display. The House of Representatives had been paralysed for three weeks because there was no speaker. This chaos affects the biggest defence project in Australia’s history. The Biden administration…
Tag: Aukus
Aukus will ‘get done’ despite jitters in Congress, Biden tells Albanese at White House meeting
Joe Biden has played down congressional jitters over the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal and has revealed he assured Xi Jinping that the countries involved are not aiming to “surround China”. The US president welcomed the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to the White House and insisted he was “confident that we’re going to be able to get the money for Aukus because it’s overwhelmingly in our interest”. “So the question is not if, but when,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Albanese in the rose garden on Wednesday…
Aukus could weaken China deterrence,
Doubts about Australia’s willingness to join forces with the US in a war against China are being cited by congressional researchers as a potential obstacle to the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal. A new research paper looks at the US plan to sell Australia between three and five Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s but suggests the idea “could weaken deterrence of potential Chinese aggression”. That stage of the deal aims to help Canberra bridge a “capability gap” before Australian-built nuclear-powered submarines begin to enter into service in the 2040s. The paper,…
The Camp David summit signals a new cold war – this time with China | Observer editorial
If it sounds like a new cold war and looks like a new cold war, then it probably is a new cold war. For what other interpretation is to be placed on US president Joe Biden’s latest ramping up of diplomatic, economic and military pressure on China? Western officials tend to avoid the term, recalling as it does decades of hair-trigger confrontation with the former Soviet Union. They talk instead about enhanced security and defence cooperation and the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. But such bland generalisations…
Three in four Australians think China will be military threat to country within 20 years, survey finds
Three-quarters of Australians believe it is likely China will become a military threat to Australia in the next two decades, but a majority say Australia should remain neutral in the event of a conflict between China and the United States, a new poll has found. The 2023 Lowy Institute poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 Australians in March on a range of issues, also found 44% of Australians see China as “more of an economic partner” while 52% see the country as “more of a security threat” – a drop…
Australia news live: Paul Keating’s blast at cabinet over Aukus revealed; Nazi symbols ban
<gu-island name="KeyEventsCarousel" deferuntil="visible" props="{"keyEvents":[{"id":"64808a8b8f080249d9e1cdd1","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" The Coalition has accused the Albanese government of “delaying the delivery of further assistance to Ukraine despite urgent calls for support”. ","elementId":"60a1a143-562a-49b4-82f0-b41dbf9301e1"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" But the government hit back at the criticism, saying it “continues to engage with the government of Ukraine and our allies and partners to ensure meaningful support continues to be provided to Ukraine in its ongoing battle against Russian aggression”. ","elementId":"9adaa1c8-5a19-49ee-886d-4a4667634fdc"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" The Coalition is today calling on the government to give urgent consideration to a package including Hawkei vehicles, M1 Abrams Tanks, F/A-18 Hornets…
Paul Keating sent explosive email to Labor cabinet two hours before attack on Aukus, FOI documents reveal
At 10.45am on Wednesday 15 March, an explosive email landed in the inboxes of all of Anthony Albanese’s cabinet ministers. “Dear cabinet colleagues,” wrote Paul Keating, Labor luminary turned chief Aukus critic. “My views will not please the prime minister, the foreign minister nor the defence minister but the country is entitled to a rationale for such a radical and dangerous policy.” The purpose of the email was to forewarn ministers that he would be tipping a bucket on them – and the nuclear-powered submarine plan they had endorsed –…
US-China war not inevitable, Albanese says, urging countries to ‘prevent a worst-case scenario’
Anthony Albanese has warned against “harmful” assumptions that the US and China are heading towards an inevitable war, and called for “practical structures to prevent a worst-case scenario”. The Australian prime minister said a war in the Indo-Pacific would be “devastating for the world” and used a keynote speech to a regional security summit in Singapore to urge all countries to uphold peace and stability. Albanese also sought to reassure countries in the region that remain wary about Australia’s plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus pact. “In boosting…
China’s ambassador to Australia says Aukus an ‘unnecessary’ use of taxpayer money and ‘not a good idea’
China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, has denounced the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine plan as an “unnecessary consumption of the hardworking Australian taxpayers’ money”. Xiao said the multi-decade defence plan would consume “tremendous” amounts of money “which could be used for other purposes like infrastructure, like reducing the cost of living, and giving the Australian people a better future”. Xiao made the pointed remarks during a press conference at the Chinese embassy in Canberra on Thursday, when he suggested further improvements in the diplomatic and trading relationship were possible but would…
Australia ‘diminished’: Penny Wong’s frenetic mission to repair regional ties
A year ago, Penny Wong claimed the Coalition had “dropped the ball” in the Pacific. Now, as she marks one year as foreign affairs minister, Wong says Australia’s relationships across the region were in an even worse state than she initially believed. “The previous government did diminish Australia’s influence in the region – and the extent of that was greater than I had anticipated,” Wong says in an interview. That’s something she has been trying to rectify through extensive travel across the Pacific and south-east Asia, intended to make a…