Australia stepping up military security ties off the coast of northern borders
Federal budget
A strong emphasis on helping protect Australia’s northern coastline is a feature of this year’s Federal Budget, released last week.
The Federal Government is aiming to provide $600m across four years from July towards the Papua New Guinea-Australia Mutual Defence Treaty by expanding Defence investments in the Pacific and South‑East Asia.
The funding includes about $422m to be held in the Contingency Reserve to support future ventures with partner governments, about $114m to build dual‑use defence projects in PNG, and close to $645m for a pilot program to recruit PNG citizens into the Australian Defence Force.
Analysts said this Budget was moving foreign spending away from a concentration on global organisations closer to the Pacific as the competition with China for strategic influence to the north of the country intensifies.
More than $33m has also been set aside across the next four years to help strengthen Australia-Indonesia relations following the signing of the Jakarta Treaty on Common Security in February.
“(The move is) reflecting our close partnership and friendship and taking our cooperation to a new level,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated in the budget papers.
Cultural and language exchange, stronger economic ties, and improving Indonesia’s civil maritime capabilities are some of the focuses of the policy.