Latest news with #KirstyNeedham
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Risk of new nuclear proliferation cycle, Australia's defence minister warns
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles will on Saturday highlight the risk of a new cycle of nuclear proliferation in Europe and Asia, driven by China's rapid nuclear modernisation, Russia's strategic ties to North Korea and lapsed treaties. The Cold War arms control framework focused on numbers, warhead types and delivery systems is inadequate to grapple with the weaponisation of space, cyber and the ability to integrate nuclear weapons with autonomous systems, Marles is expected to tell the Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asian security forum. "We also have to counter the grim, potentially imminent, possibility of another wave of global nuclear proliferation as states seek security in a new age of imperial ambition," excerpts of his speech seen by Reuters say. In the speech Marles criticises Russia for threatening to use nuclear weapons in its conflict with Ukraine, which gave up its nuclear arsenal decades earlier, and says the probability Russia is transferring nuclear weapons technology to North Korea places "intolerable pressure on South Korea". "China's decision to pursue rapid nuclear modernisation and expansion, which aims in part to reach parity with or surpass the United States, is another reason the future of strategic arms control must be revitalised," he is expected to say. There is a risk of a new proliferation cycle that jeopardises the U.S. extended nuclear deterrence arrangement, he says. Marles will repeat Australia's assurances that the nuclear powered and conventionally armed submarines it is acquiring from the United States in the next decade under AUKUS comply with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Defence ministers, senior military and security officials and diplomats from around the world are attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore from May 30-June 1.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
US pushes security ally Australia to spend more on defence
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked security ally Australia to increase defence spending in a meeting with Defence Minister Richard Marles on Friday in Singapore. The defence chiefs also discussed the need to significantly lift U.S. submarine production rates to meet AUKUS targets. Australia is scheduled to pay the United States $2 billion by the end of 2025 to assist its submarine shipyards, in order to buy three Virginia-class submarines starting in 2032 -- its biggest ever defence project. The defence ministers meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier security forum, is only the second between the security allies since the Trump Administration took office. Hegseth had "respectfully" said Australia should increase defence spending, Marles said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation television interview after the meeting. "Clearly we have increased defence spending significantly and that is acknowledged, but we want to be making sure we are calibrating our defence spending to the strategic moment that we need to meet," he said. "We are very much up for the conversation, and the American position has been clear," he added. Marles said they did not discuss a number, although a Pentagon official had previously said Australia should spend 3% of gross domestic product. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was re-elected this month and is yet to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, did not raise defence spending in this year's national budget, saying his government had already announced a A$50 billion boost over a decade. Albanese said on Thursday defence spending would rise to 2.4%. "In a rational world defence spending is a function of strategic threat - there is definitely strategic threat in the world today and we are rational people," Marles said. The AUKUS submarine partnership and working together to provide stability in the Indo-Pacific were also discussed, Marles said. "AUKUS is happening and we talked about the need to maintain the momentum," he said. "We want to be seeing a significant increase in the production and sustainment rate, the availability of Virginia class submarines for the United States fleet." U.S. production of Virginia class attack submarines has fallen behind U.S. Navy targets, and concern has been raised in Washington over selling used submarines to Australia under AUKUS if this reduces the fleet size.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cerberus eyes Darwin Port, says Chinese port operator, amid Australia's local ownership push
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Cerberus has shown interest in acquiring the lease for Darwin Port, a senior executive of the port's Chinese operator said on Tuesday, amid a push by the Australian government for the port to be returned to domestic ownership. Terry O'Connor, Australia non-executive director of Chinese company Landbridge, which operates Darwin Port, told Reuters that a Cerberus executive met with the port's Chief Executive Peter Dummett a fortnight ago and expressed interest, but had not yet spoken with Landbridge's board. Cerberus did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Landbridge has previously said the port is not for sale, and that it had not discussed the matter with the Australian government. China's ambassador to Canberra criticised on Sunday Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's election pledge last month to return the strategically located northern port to local ownership. The Northern Territory government sold the port's 99-year lease to Landbridge for $506 million in 2015, a move criticised by the U.S. president at the time, Barack Obama. Around 2,000 U.S. Marines conduct exercises for six months of the year in the northern city of Darwin, where the U.S. and Australia are expanding air bases to host U.S. bombers. The Australian newspaper first reported on Tuesday that Cerberus Capital Management, founded by billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg who was appointed U.S. deputy secretary of defence in March, was preparing a formal proposal to buy the port. "The Chinese enterprise concerned obtained the lease of Darwin Port through the market, and their legitimate rights and interests should be fully protected," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Tuesday at a regular press conference, replying to a question about Darwin Port. The Australian federal government is running a separate process to identify potential Australian buyers and investors for the port. "There have been numerous meetings with potential proponents for the Port of Darwin," said federal lawmaker Luke Gosling, the special envoy for defence and Northern Australia, in a statement to Reuters. "We'll work through that process methodically," he added. The Northern Territory's treasurer Bill Yan told parliament last week the port must be ready for "heavier defence logistics, the surge in critical mineral exports and the growing LNG cargoes", and operate in "Australian interests". Yan's office did not respond to a request for comment. Australian Strategic Policy Institute director of national security programs, John Coyne, said Landbridge deciding to sell the port for profit would be an easier pathway for the Albanese government than if it were required to intervene to break the lease on national security grounds, which would draw a backlash from China. "Beijing would not be happy with a divestment of an asset like this," he said, adding China could discourage other foreign investment in Australia.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australia to stay tariff-free for Pacific Islands struggling with aid cuts, says foreign minister
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong has pledged to keep tariff-free access for Pacific Island goods, after Fiji was hit by a 32% U.S. tariff, in a speech positioning Australia as a reliable partner to the region amid global aid cuts. Australia is the region's largest aid donor and "a partner the Pacific can count on", Wong said in Suva on Tuesday, her first international speech since the centre-left Labor government was re-elected in May. "Forty years of tariff-free access into Australia has helped contribute to the prosperity of the Pacific. And I can promise you today, that will not change," she said at the headquarters of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region's diplomatic bloc. Fiji's main exports include bottled water, sugar and fish. A transport hub for the aid-reliant region that sits strategically between the United States and Asia, Fiji was previously courted by Washington and Beijing for security ties and infrastructure assistance. Vanuatu was hit with a 22% U.S. tariff, while Nauru, population 11,000, drew a 30% tariff. Fiji's prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, had raised concerns about the U.S. aid freeze in Washington in February. "The Pacific is facing growing challenges, from climate change, cuts to global aid and rules under strain," said Wong, who will also travel to Vanuatu and Tonga this week. Australia has pledged a record A$2.1 billion ($1.35 billion) in development assistance to the Pacific Islands, she said. "Recognising the impact of global aid cuts, we have reprioritised our development assistance to dedicate 75 cents of every Australian development dollar to support our region," she said. China is the second-largest donor country to the Pacific Islands, and has sought increasing policing ties in the region, which Australia sees as a security threat. ($1 = 1.5506 Australian dollars)
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australia PM Albanese to meet Indonesia counterpart in first international visit since re-election
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet with Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday to discuss defence cooperation and global trade, after arriving in Jakarta on his first international visit since his re-election. Albanese, sworn into office on Tuesday after his centre-left Labor party won an increased majority in parliament, said his visit showed the priority Canberra placed on defence and economic ties with Jakarta. "Indonesia is a critical relationship for Australia, this major neighbour just to our north that will grow to be the fifth largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade," Albanese said in a radio interview in Perth on Wednesday. Substantial progress had been made on defence and maritime cooperation, he said, referring to a defence cooperation treaty signed last year. Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst for defence, Euan Graham, said the Australia-Indonesia relationship has "avoided serious crisis for more than a decade, cooperation continues to move forward incrementally and there is greater stability than before". Yet wide differences remain, he added. "Jakarta sees China and Russia as vectors of opportunity more than threats and views the U.S. and China primarily through the same lens of great power rivalry. That's largely at odds with Canberra's world view," he said. Indonesia dismissed reports last month that Russia had requested to base military aircraft in the archipelago's easternmost province of Papua, about 1,200 km (750 miles) north of the Australian city of Darwin, where a U.S. Marine Corps rotational force is based for six months of the year. Albanese said the two leaders will also discuss global trade. Australia wants to increase economic ties with Southeast Asia, as it seeks to diversify export markets to reduce reliance on China, and in response to trade uncertainty caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Indonesia remains a "protected and challenging market" and a competitor to Australia in commodity exports, said Graham.
