Foreign minister heads for US summit amid defence calls
While the Foreign Minister is preparing to meet with US colleagues for important talks, while increasing pressure to increase defense expenditures to Australia.
Penny Wong will fly to Washington on Monday before the Fourth Foreign Minister meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as ministers from India and Japan.
The trip to the United States will see that Senator Wong is organizing one -on -one talks with Mr. Rubio, because Australia is trying to exempt the tariffs given to the United States in exports.
“This will be the second four -four -fourth meeting meeting in six months, reflecting the importance of our partnership and the strategic conditions that encounter our region and our world.
“The United States is our nearest ally and our main strategic partner. Our alliance contributes to the peace, prosperity and stability of our countries and the region we share.
“We will continue to work together to advance our important economic and security partnership and to advance our mutual interests.”
The meeting with senior US officials came after Prime Minister Anthony Arnavutes meeting with President Donald Trump at the G7 Summit in Canada at the beginning of June.
However, due to the situation in the Middle East, negotiations were canceled in eleven hours.
Australia is trying to abolish US economic sanctions, a 10 percent tariff applied to all exports and a 50 percent tariff tariff for steel and aluminum.
The four -summit coincides with calls from the US to raise defense expenditures to 3.5 percent of GDP.
Australia is currently expanding its defense budget by 2.3 percent by 2033/34 and the federal government is making companies in spending commitments.
The debate on defense expenditures comes as a report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute published on Monday.
The report called for research safety to be given at the same level as foreign intervention and espionage for defense priorities.
“Foreign states actively targeted Australia’s research ecosystem by trying to influence the agenda of research, to remove sensitive information and to benefit from corporate security deficits,” he said.
“However, the threat view was not static, developed and quickly.”
The report said that research safety will be even more important as AUKUS partnership between Australia, USA and Britain develops.
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