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<\/p>\nAustralia has been warned that the country is entering a new and far more serious strategic era\u00a0in the\u00a0AUKUS\u00a0plan\u00a0as the US looks to embed combat-ready infrastructure on Australian soil.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defence Minister Richard Marles met his counterparts in Washington this week about AUKUS, and said all sides were \u201cfocused on delivery\u201d now formal reviews of the plan had concluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo told Sky News Australia on Friday that for American officials, Australia\u2019s growing strategic value has less to do with the size of its defence force and far more to do with geography.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat matters to them is access to geography,\u201d he said, adding that Australia is offering something now that goes well beyond traditional intelligence sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He described the shift as profound.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0not defence\u00a0spending;\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0access to territory. And that is a revolution in Australian strategic policy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Pezzullo argued that Australia is now hosting, or preparing to host, infrastructure that moves beyond surveillance and communications – and moving directly into supporting US combat operations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
That move is “more like what we did in 1942 to support General MacArthur,\u201d he said referencing when Australia handed over operational control of Australian forces, transforming Australia into a vital American logistics hub.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
That includes airfields, ports, bunkers, warehouses, refuelling hubs and the future home of American nuclear submarines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat typically has not been at the centre of Australian policy,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, it\u2019s been contrary to Australian policy\u2026 until the Abbott government signed\u00a0the Forced Posture Treaty in 2014.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new arrangement, he said,\u00a0represents\u00a0a fundamental re-balancing between the allies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Discussing the state of the alliance, Mr Pezzullo said Australia remained in Washington\u2019s good books – despite the Trump administration last week pressuring allies to lift spending and take on more responsibility.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Pezzullo\u00a0argued the relationship\u00a0with the US\u00a0is stable\u00a0and being handled effectively, but the costs and risks tied to AUKUS have not been explained clearly to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the alliance has been managed quite well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question that\u00a0we’ll\u00a0come to in a moment is at what cost? In other words, what investments are we putting on the table and what risks and liabilities do they bring with them?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His comments come as Mr Marles insists AUKUS is on schedule, despite delays across US and UK nuclear-submarine programs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Australia is opening its territory in a way that gives the United States greater operational reach into the Indo-Pacific, while Washington applies pressure on Europe and NATO partners to increase their own spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Trump administration continues to argue that the US should not shoulder the burden of\u00a0maintaining\u00a0global stability unless others lift their contributions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Pezzullo said that language is now embedded in America\u2019s national security thinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He pointed to the administration\u2019s newly released national security strategy, which includes lines rarely seen in an official document.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope has been overwhelmed by immigrants and Europe is at risk of civilisation erasure,\u201d he said, paraphrasing the document.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a phrase in there\u2026 about not holding up the world order like Atlas holding up the Earth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Mr Pezzullo also noted the contradiction at the heart of President Trump\u2019s foreign policy\u00a0–\u00a0a leader who champions \u201cAmerica First\u201d yet invests significant energy in global diplomacy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been an interventionist president\u2026 by pursuing these peace initiatives,\u201d Mr Pezzullo said, pointing to efforts in Gaza and pressure on Ukraine\u2019s leadership.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he said the president avoids major deployments of US forces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s actually not committed US combat forces,\u201d he said, with only limited exceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Australian policymakers, the challenge now is to fully explain what AUKUS\u00a0actually means.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Besides the long-term plan for nuclear-powered submarines, officials in all three nations admit the timelines rely on major improvements in US and UK shipbuilding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AUKUS review led by US Under Secretary of\u00a0Defense\u00a0Elbridge Colby highlighted those challenges, though the recommendations\u00a0remain\u00a0confidential.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Pezzullo cautioned that while the alliance is strong, Australians must understand what the new arrangements entail.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get in front of the Australian people what this trade-off actually entails,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Australia has already committed US$3 billion to help expand American submarine construction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Marles has rejected claims the timeline is slipping, saying the US shipyard he visited this week shows \u201can increase in production rates\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Mr Pezzullo says the deeper strategic shift\u00a0–\u00a0the embedding of US forces and capability on Australian soil\u00a0–\u00a0is the real transformation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia has been warned that the country is entering a new and far more serious strategic era\u00a0in the\u00a0AUKUS\u00a0plan\u00a0as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,3402,63,3403,90842,190417,44,1055,190418],"class_list":{"0":"post-343991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-aukus","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-defence","12":"tag-indo-pacific","13":"tag-mike-pezzullo","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us-relations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}