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In advance of tomorrow's 34th Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III met today at the Pentagon with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles to discuss the historic military-to-military progress between the two nations.
Austin just returned last week from a trip to the Indo-Pacific, his 11th visit to the region as secretary. He told Marles he was proud of what the two nations have accomplished in the last three years.
"We share with Australia a vision for a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific," Austin said. "Together, our unbreakable alliance is helping to make that vision a reality. We're delivering on major force posture initiatives, deepening our defense industrial cooperation and expanding efforts with our regional allies and partners."
Included in those efforts, Austin said, is the historic trilateral Australia, U.K. and U.S. partnership, called AUKUS. The partnership, announced in September 2021, involves two pillars. The first pillar aims to deliver a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability to Australia. The second pillar involves enhancing joint capabilities and interoperability.
"Today and tomorrow, we'll keep building on the historic results that we've achieved together," Austin said. " we'll chart our path to strengthen our alliance over the coming years."
The secretary acknowledged his counterpart as a driving force behind the momentum and progress of the partnership between the U.S. and Australia.
Since Austin has been the U.S. secretary of defense, Marles said, the partnership between the two nations has grown significantly.
"So much has happened over the last few years," Marles said. "You mentioned AUKUS, which is transforming Australia's military capability. That can't happen but for the partnership that we have. We're seeing America's force posture in Australia grow really significantly, AUKUS is part of that, but it's not the only part of that. The marine rotation in Darwin is growing across all the domains. We're now seeing more activities, which has been really fantastic. We are doing more industrially and the breakthrough legislation that went through the Congress at the end of last year in terms of defense export controls is again a transformational change in terms of our relationship."
Marles also thanked Austin for his leadership in other areas around the globe, including in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
As an example, Marles pointed to the important U.S.-led trilateral partnership developing with Japan and South Korea; and also, to the quadrilateral partnership between U.S., Japan, Australia and the Philippines, aimed at advancing a shared vision for a free, open, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
The world remains a challenging place, with a complex security environment, Marles said.
"We're witnessing that literally play out by the day," Marles said. "Our relationship with the United States has always been important, but it's never been more important than now."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong will be joining the two defense leaders in Annapolis, Maryland.
