Washington, Dec 9 (IANS) The United States and Australia on Monday placed the Indo-Pacific at the centre of their ministerial talks, underscoring strengthened defence cooperation, expanding force posture initiatives, and reaffirming the role of the Quad with India as a central pillar of regional strategy.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio opened the consultations by calling Australia “an incredibly strong alliance” and “the only ally that has fought with us in every war over the last — over — certainly, over the last four or five decades.” He said the momentum from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s October visit had set clear priorities across the Indo-Pacific.
Rubio placed the Quad — the strategic grouping of the US, India, Japan and Australia — at the heart of the administration’s Indo-Pacific agenda. “We are… deeply committed to the Quad,” he said, describing it as “the concept of in conjunction with Japan and India, the building out of this Quad,” and recalling that “it was in this very room that I did my first event as secretary of state with the Quad.”
Rubio linked the Quad’s strengthened role to shared technological and economic security concerns, highlighting the newly signed critical minerals agreement with Canberra. Reliable supply chains, he said, are essential “whether it’s defend our countries, defend our allies or defend each other,” adding that both nations must avoid being “overly invested in one place, where they can be used as leverage against our partners or us.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Australia-US partnership is “indispensable to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” and reiterated that “the United States is our principal ally and our principal strategic partner.” Stressing continuity since the founding of AUSMIN in 1985, she added that “today, the United States and Australia as much as ever rely on each other.”
Wong said AUKUS, the submarine and advanced-technology partnership involving the US, UK and Australia, remains central to regional equilibrium. “We are full steam ahead. We are full steam ahead,” she declared.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed a sweeping Indo-Pacific military posture designed to expand US operational reach and joint capabilities with allies. “We’re working on force posture,” he said, citing upgrades to “air bases in Queensland and the Northern Territory,” expanded “US bomber rotations,” and upgraded logistics at Darwin “so more US Marines can do rotational deployments and pre-positioning MV-22 Ospreys.”
Hegseth also outlined joint production and sustainment pathways for advanced weapon systems — cooperation he described as essential to deter conflict in the Indo-Pacific. He listed “cooperative actions on things like GMLRS… precision strike missiles,” and movement toward “co-production and co-sustainment of hypersonic attack cruise missiles… air-to-air missiles,” as well as collaboration on “Mark 54 torpedoes.”
Critical minerals — an area where India is rapidly expanding partnerships with both countries — remain a strategic glue in the alliance. Hegseth called them “a huge part of ensuring both countries can operate the way we need to in that region and around the world.”
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles described the talks as pivotal for navigating “a much more contested world where it really matters to be doubling down with friends and allies.” He said AUKUS was advancing “full steam ahead,” and highlighted preparations for the Submarine Rotational Force West by 2027. Australia, he noted, is already hosting “the most extensive maintenance that a US nuclear submarine has undertaken outside of the United States.”
Marles said Australia is expanding access for US assets across “air, sea and ground, but also space and cyber,” signalling a coordinated Indo-Pacific deterrence posture. He underscored deep integration within US commands, noting that “almost 900 Australian servicemen and women… are embedded in the United States defence forces,” and that deputy commanders of the US Army, Navy and Air Force in the Pacific “are all now institutionally Australian.”
The reinforced US-US-Australia alignment comes amid intensifying competition in the Indo-Pacific, where both nations coordinate closely with India through the Quad, defence exercises, maritime domain awareness initiatives, and emerging technology frameworks.
The Quad has evolved into a strategic platform linking the US, India, Japan and Australia on supply chains, maritime security, cybersecurity and critical technologies, complementing bilateral and trilateral arrangements that aim to strengthen stability across the Indo-Pacific region.
–IANS
int/lkj/uk
