Australian and British navy officers will join forces in a show of strength against Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific.

The UK carrier strike group will be deployed to the region in 2025 and dock in Darwin, marking the first time a British carrier will dock in Australia since 1997.

Australian destroyers HMAS Sydney and HMAS Brisbane will participate in the group’s activities, Defence Minister Richard Marles announced in London after a joint meeting between the two nation’s defence and foreign ministers.

“We’re seeing increased co-operation between our defence forces in the joint operations space and special forces (and) across our intelligence agencies,” he said at a joint press conference on Tuesday (AEDT) following the meeting.

Discussions spanned “the challenge of China – increasingly active, increasingly assertive in the region – and the vital importance of maintaining both deterrence and freedom of navigation”, UK Defence Secretary John Healey said.

The strike group will participate in military exercises Talisman Sabre, Australia’s largest exercise, and Bersama Lima, which includes Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Australia will also establish a submarine program interface office in Bristol in the coming months, which will include about a dozen Australians to manage the delivery of nuclear-powered submarines.

Australia will acquire the submarines under the AUKUS pact with Britain and the United States.

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Australia having nuclear-powered submarines would increase America’s deterrent capability in the Indo-Pacific.

“The United States providing this technology to Australia enhances Australia’s ability to defend and deter itself,” he told the Lowy Institute.

Mr Sullivan dismissed concerns a capricious Donald Trump would weaken the AUKUS agreement once he takes the presidential office in January by pulling the plug on selling submarines to Australia to shore up American naval firepower.

Australia’s contribution to America’s industrial base meant the US “is benefiting from burden sharing, exactly the kind of thing that Mr Trump has talked a lot about,” Mr Sullivan said.

It also sent a signal “that if you are a good friend of America, we will have your back”, he said.

“Above all, at a kind of loud volume, that is what AUKUS says.”

Mr Healey said London would look to accelerate a pathway for Australian firms to play a larger role in British supply chains for the submarine program.

Canberra and London will improve climate finance access in the Pacific and Australia will continue to support a UK-based operation training Ukrainian soldiers to repel Russia’s invasion.

Mr Healey flagged increased training support and greater contributions to the international fund for Ukraine.

Russia was under pressure and “is incapable of achieving its strategic objectives in Ukraine”, Mr Sullivan said.

Sustained support for Ukraine meant Russia “is in a weaker, more exposed state”.

“It has suffered enormous losses, it has mortgaged its economic future,” he said.

Dominic Giannini
(Australian Associated Press)