Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has said that Australia is expanding its defence relationships with Bharat, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and other partners in Southeast Asia.
Speaking at Plenary Session 3: Building Cooperative Security in the Asia-Pacific at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Marles stated that Australia is deepening its alliance with the US, including through enhanced force posture cooperation in Australia.
Marles, who is also Australia’s Defence Minister, said, “Australia is deepening its alliance with the United States, including through enhanced force posture cooperation in Australia, as we welcome recent US force posture enhancements in Japan, the Philippines and elsewhere.”
“But Australia is also expanding its defence relationships with Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and other partners in Southeast Asia. These relationships have in fact have never been stronger, reflecting how we are all making choices about how to strengthen regional resilience,” he added.
Richard Marles noted that this network effect has to have a strong multilateral dimension as well and termed ASEAN key to this. He also spoke about Australia commemorating 50 years as ASEAN’s first dialogue partner during the special summit held in Melbourne in March.
He further said, “ASEAN cohesion has constituted one of the greatest strategic assets for the region over the past half-century. Long may it continue to do so.”
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