Senior US defence official Elbridge Colby says US ‘will not be deterred' from its call for allied countries to boost defence spending
US Undersecretary of Defence Elbridge Colby said the US' position of 'achieving peace through strength' was 'abundantly and consistently clear,' and would include urging allies to 'step up their defence spending and other efforts related to our collective defence'.
This follows Mr Hegseth's call for Australia to boost immediately boost investment from 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent of GDP, about $40bn, significantly beyond Labor's current commitment to reach 2.33 per cent by 2033.
While Mr Colby, a noted China hawk, didn't name countries who are lagging on their funding commitments, he said the US would 'not be deterred'.
'Of course, some among our allies might not welcome frank conversations. But many, now led by NATO after the historic Hague Summit, are seeing the urgent need to step up and are doing so,' he wrote on X.
'President Trump has shown the approach and the formula – and we will not be deterred from advancing his agenda.'
His comments follow reports in the Financial Times on Saturday that Mr Colby has been pushing Japanese and Australian defence officials on their response if China invaded Taiwan, an outcome US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said was an 'imminent' threat.
Quoting one US official, they told the UK publication that while the US does 'not seek war,' or to 'dominate China,' the US wants to ensure both it and its allies 'have the military strength to underwrite diplomacy and guarantee peace'.
Speaking to the ABC on Sunday, Acting Defence Minister Pat Conroy would not 'engage in hypotheticals' or 'disclose confidential discussions'.
'The sole power to commit Australia to war or to allow our territory to be used for a conflict is the elected government of the day,' he said.
'That is our position. Sovereignty will always be prioritised, and that will continue to be our position.'
Australia has repeatedly rebuffed calls from the US to boost defence spending, stating that the amount will be decided according to Australia's sovereign needs, which has in-turn put pressure on the alliance, and Anthony Albanese's attempts to secure a tariff exemption.
While politically, the Prime Minister is under increasing pressure to secure a meeting with Mr Trump, the leaders are set to have a face-to-face talk in early September during the Quad meeting in India.
This will also be the first in-person meeting between Mr Albanese and Mr Trump since the President's re-election in November, however the leaders have shared three phone calls.
Echoing comments made by Anthony Albanese, who is currently on a six-day diplomatic mission in China, Foreign Minister Penny Wong last week said that said Australia's security should not be defined 'simply in the terms of what China or the United States is doing in the regions'.
'Instead Australia will 'take our own approach to our relationships, to the rules and to this region that we share,' she said while attending the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia.
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And I think it's really important that Australia has that discussion internally, because I don't think we've been having it until now. And it affects those decisions about whether we have a forward strategic stance in the South China Sea or not. But I think the crucial question is it's fine for the Americans to ask that question if their own position is clarified. And I think this is the dodgy bit of it, to use the technical phrase. I mean, I think the Americans don't want to say what their position is. And it's not clear that they would go to war over Taiwan with China. Reporter: Would it be reasonable for the United States to demand any sort of assurances from Australia on a Taiwan contingency, given the United States itself maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity, at least in theory, on Taiwan? Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: Well, you've just answered the question yourself, I think, through the comments that you've made. Sam Hawley: Well, Laura, just sum this up for me. 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One of them is Penny Wong has in the last week gone out very hard on these issues, both in a speech and also in her meetings with her counterpart when she was at the ASEAN meeting. Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: China continues to assert its strategic influence and project its military power further into our region. And we have seen the worrying pace of China's nuclear and conventional military build up without the transparency that the region expects. We are realistic about China's objectives in changing the regional balance of power. Laura Tingle: So she's laid down Australia's protests on all these issues in a very forthright way. And the prime minister has said that, you know, these issues will not be avoided in his conversations with the president and premier while he's here in Beijing. But, you know, it's always the case that those leader to leader meetings, they're a little bit more diplomatic about what they might say publicly. But Anthony Albanese says that, one, he's on the case and two, that it's been successful in the interests of Australia since he's been prime minister. Sam Hawley: All right. Well, Laura, it's a true balancing act. That's for sure. The PM's trying to work with China, but he also wants to keep the US happy too. So this, I think, is one of the most complicated relationships he has to deal with as the leader of Australia, right? Laura Tingle: Absolutely. Absolutely. But I can't help but feeling that the way that the Trump administration has been behaving, if you like, in that broader description of its sort of erraticness and everything, has created both political space at home and abroad for the prime minister to establish a more assertive position with both major powers and sort of establish that more independent voice of our own. I think it's been quite useful because I think people at home are sort of, they look at what Donald Trump's been doing with a bit of confusion and concern, and it's just given him some space. And of course, also, you know, three years ago, there was this sense that the Labor Party couldn't say anything negative about the United States at all or about the alliance because they'd get absolutely pummelled by the coalition. It's harder to do that now because of the way the US has been going. But also, of course, the coalition is weakened politically and its both its capacity and its taste for, you know, fighting every last fight as a sign of, you know, being disloyal to the Americans has really subsided. So I think there's a lot of tectonic plate shifting, which give government of the day room to manoeuvre with both major powers. Sam Hawley: Laura Tingle is the ABC's Global Affairs Editor. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead and Kara Jensen-Mackinnon. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
