LATIKA M BOURKE: Trump admin should be showing Australia gratitude, not asking for more defence spending

The Trump Administration should be thanking Australia instead of demanding more defence spending, a leading Democratic Senator has said.

Both the US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby have demanded Australia raise its defence spending to the NATO standard of 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035.

The Trump Administration has successfully forced European nations into spending more on their own defences but have had less luck with Indo-Pacific allies, despite the threat posed by China, which last week tested a nuclear-capable missile from a submarine in the South Pacific.

After a reprieve from the US President Donald Trump during last year’s bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Labor has committed only to reaching a target of spending 3 per cent by 2033, prompting criticisms that it is not spending enough to contribute to credible deterring China from trying to control regional shipping lanes on which Australia’s economy relies.

Speaking exclusively to The Nightly on the sidelines of last week’s NATO gathering in Ankara, Turkey, Senator Chris Coons, who is the lead Democrat on the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defence, said Australia contributed more to the Alliance than headline spending figures suggested.

“Here’s what Australia does not get enough credit for, and more Senators and Congressmen need to spend time in Australia to appreciate this, percentage numbers are important, but so are capabilities,” he said.

“And Australia’s capability as an intelligence partner and as a development and diplomacy partner punch way above its weight.

“In the Pacific Islands Australia is the preeminent American Ally and partner and is pushing back against China’s active expansionism in a very effective way.”

Pressed on whether Australia should try to hit 3.5 per cent, Senator Coons said the United States should not be making demands, but showing gratitude.

“I think it is less my place to tell Australians how much to spend as it is my place to say Americans ought to be thankful and give Australia credit for the range of activities that Australia permits or embraces with the United States, from test ranges in the outback to the AUKUS partnership to developing, cutting-edge drones and quantum systems,” he said.

“Like, I didn’t fully appreciate how much a college friend of mine was the ambassador to Australia under the Obama Administration, and I don’t think I really understood the depth and reach of our partnership, and so I would welcome and celebrate more spending but to me what matters as much is much more closely integrated capability.”

That ambassador was Jeffrey Bleich who told The Nightly ahead of the inauguration that the US-Australia relationship would be less stable under President Trump.

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy used his attendance at the NATO summit to brief Europeans on Australia’s levels of defence spending, which he said constituted an $117 billion increase to defence spending over ten years, backdated to 2024.

He argued that Australia’s defence spending was well above the UK and France and Germany. However, Germany is rapidly rearming and will spend 20 per cent of its budget, worth €109.7 billion ($AUD180b) on defence spending in 2027 alone.

“We’re significantly ramping up investment in medium-range, ground-based missile defence,” he said in an interview. “We’re planning to spend five times more than we were planning on active missile defence.”

Asked if Australia could defend itself under Labor’s current spending goals, Mr Conroy said: “I believe the Defence Force can meet all the tasking requirements that are set by the government in our planning documents.”

But Mike Pezzullo, former Home Affairs Secretary and author of the 2009 White Paper, said Mr Conroy’s claim was not credible.

“One can therefore only assume that defence planning guidance therefore does not contemplate Australia having to defend itself by relying on its own combat forces, in the unlikely but not implausible event of a major power war in the Pacific, where Australia was fighting alongside its ally, the United States,” he said.

“Current levels of ADF capability, and impending capability enhancements, simply would not be heavy enough to adequately meet the challenge of defending our territory and approaches to our territory.”