US urges Australia to increase defense spending as Canberra says nuclear submarines ‘on track’

ISTANBUL

The US urged Australia to increase its defense budget on Friday as Australia Defense Minister Richard Marles said nuclear submarines are "on track."

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Marles met in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue -- a key annual defense and security forum.

Hegseth said before the meeting that Canberra and Washington are "in touch regularly" and called ties a "long-standing, incredibly important partnership."

Australia is a member of the Quad grouping of Indo-Pacific democracies that includes the US, Japan and India. The framework is widely seen as a counterweight to China.

Marles told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that although he would not put "a number on it," an increase in defense spending was "something that Hegseth definitely raised."

The AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership "is on track," Marles said, in an interview with CNBC International, according to a readout from the Defense Ministry, adding that the subject was discussed with Hegseth as it was brought up in February.

The 2021 AUKUS alliance included the US, UK, and Australia developing nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

"We're working very closely together to see that all of these milestones reached. That we see the establishment of the Submarine Rotation Force – West which is an HMAS Stirling, south of Perth, which will see US Virginia class submarines rotate through there, operate from there in the next couple of years," said Marles.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday that Canberra has "an additional" $10 billion "investment going into defense" after a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warned that Australia could be left with a "brittle and hollowed defense force" if military funding was not heightened.

Hegseth also held meetings Friday with the Southeast Asian defense chiefs of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste, during which he "reiterated concerns about coercive activity by China against South China Sea claimant countries and emphasized the importance of Southeast Asian nations taking on its share of the burden to preserve peace and security in the region," according to a readout by the US Department of Defense.

Hegseth and Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro also "noted the importance of partnership and transparency in deterring China and committed to continued progress on strengthening their defense cooperation."