Australia deploying plane, ADF personnel to Europe in NATO pledge

Courier-Mail

5 hours ago

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Australia is deploying a surveillance plane and some 100 defence personnel to Poland in a major pledge to NATO allies.
The move comes amid growing fears Russia's war in Ukraine could spill over the border and trigger a much broader conflict in Europe.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles announced the deployment from the NATO Summit in the Netherlands overnight.
'We just concluded a really successful summit here at the NATO gathering in The Hague,' Mr Marles told reporters.
'We have been able to announce that we will be deploying an E-7 Wedgetail to Poland in August for a three-month rotation, which will help support Ukraine in its struggle and defiance against Russia.
'There will be about 100 Australian personnel who come with that asset.'
Australia is deploying an E-7A Wedgetail and some 100 defence personnel to Europe amid fears Russia's war in Ukraine could spread. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Mr Marles, who is also defence minister, said Australia slapped further 'financial and travel sanctions on 37 individuals and seven entities' related to Russia's 'defence, energy and … other critical sectors'.
The commitment builds on an agreement signed at the summit to deepen defence industry co-ordination as Australia and NATO countries scramble to ramp up production and procurement.
Mr Marles said it would help both parties spend smarter – somewhat of a mantra for the Albanese government as it resists US calls to boost Australia's defence budget.
He said the summit 'reaffirmed the connection that exists between the Indo Pacific on the one hand and the North Atlantic on the other'.
'We are obviously focused on the Indo Pacific in terms of our own strategic landscape, but what's happening here in Europe is having an influence on the strategic landscape in the Indo Pacific,' Mr Marles said.
'And as we seek to focus on the Indo Pacific, we really need to have an eye on what's occurring here, which is why this meeting has been so important and has grown importance over the last few years. And I see it as being very important as we go into the future.'
Still no Trump meet
Among the summit's attendees was Donald Trump.
Neither Anthony Albanese nor any of his senior ministers have had an in-person meeting with the US President since his inauguration in January, driving concerns about the Prime Minister's management of the Australia-US alliance.
Mr Marles was close to meeting Mr Trump as part of talks with the Indo Pacific Four (IP4), but a last-minute schedule change dashed chances of a face-to-face.
US President Donald Trump attended the NATO Summit in the Netherlands. Picture: AFP / Nicolas Tucat
Mr Marles said it was a 'really important meeting with the (NATO) Secretary General' all the same, stressing that fellow IP4 countries Japan, Korea and New Zealand 'are deeply important in terms of Australia's strategic interests'.
'In respect of all of them, we really are at a high point of our bilateral relationship, and we are working increasingly as a team,' he said.
He added that having 'the best lines of communication possible with NATO, to be working as closely as possible with NATO is very much in the advantage of the four of us in terms of how we jointly assert our national interests within the Indo Pacific'.
'And it was a very important meeting in respect of that,' Mr Marles said.
He also said he did not get to meet US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
They last met on the sidelines of the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore earlier this month.
Mr Hegseth used the meeting to call on the Albanese government to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, igniting a major debate in Canberra and fuelling criticisms that Australia is ill-prepared to defend itself against an increasingly aggressive China.
Mr Marles said it was not disappointing he did not get to meet his US counterpart.
'I'm in contact with Pete,' he said.
'We met in Singapore just a few weeks ago, and I met him literally a few months before that.'
He said there would 'be opportunities to be able to further the conversations that need to be had with Pete Hegseth in the future'.
No budge on budget
NATO members agreeing to boost defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP was the key outcome of this week's summit.
The collective commitment is a major win for Mr Trump, who has threatened to drop US military support for Europe it did not spend more.
Mr Marles said it was 'obviously a very significant decision has been made here in relation to European defence spending', but noted it was 'fundamentally a matter for NATO'.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says he is not disappointed he did not meet US President Donald Trump or his US defence counterpart Pete Hegseth. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
'We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there, and the kind of defence force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and then to resource that,' he said.
'And what that has seen is the biggest peacetime increase in Australian defence spending that we have seen in our history.'
Mr Marles said the Albanese government's position was 'understood' by NATO.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher echoed the position when fronting media on Thursday, saying Labor had 'put billions of dollars into defence'.
'But I would again say in the last three years we put $11bn across the forward estimates and $57bn into defence over the medium term,' she told the ABC.
'We've been able to do that at a time we have put increases into health, and other important social programs.
'So … it is a balancing act. But the government's job is to make sure that all areas of government are funded properly, including defence.'
While the Albanese government has committed record cash for the defence budget, much of it would not kick in until after 2029.
With the Australia itself predicting a major global conflict by 2034 and some analysts warning of a US-China conflict before 2030, critics have argued the money is not flowing fast enough and instead tied up in longer-term projects at the cost of combat-readiness.
Originally published as Australia deploying plane, ADF personnel to Poland in NATO pledge