The BGA Australia Team, led by Managing Director Michael “Mick” McNeill, wrote an update to clients on Australia’s recent security engagements.

Context

  • Australia has strengthened engagement with like-minded partners over the past month in an effort to defend the global rules-based order. Australia has been deepening key partnerships and alliances as it weaves a strong security network to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex strategic environment.
  • Canberra displayed this strategic positioning at the 75th North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington, D.C., from July 9-11, promising to deepen Indo-Pacific cooperation with NATO and announcing a major military aid package to Ukraine. Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Korea, dubbed the “IP4,” met with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the summit, noting the shared challenges NATO and the Indo-Pacific face, and committing to increased collaboration. The IP4 is emerging as another part of the “latticework” of regional architecture, reinforcing Australia’s pushback against Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
  • Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles traveled to the United Kingdom July 12 to meet with the newly appointed U.K. Secretary of State for Defense John Healey. The visit ensured ongoing support for the AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States) trilateral security partnership and bilateral military cooperation in the Indo-Pacific under the new U.K. Labour government.
  • Australia hosted the new prime minister of the Solomon Islands in late June. This marks a positive step in repairing the relationship with one of the region’s most geostrategically important nations. The prime minister of Tuvalu also visited Australia from July 10-12 to advance a historic bilateral security pact.

Significance

  • Defense Minister Richard Marles unveiled an AUD 250 million (US$165.4 million) military aid package for Ukraine, which is Australia’s largest single support package to the country to date and brings Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine to $1.1 billion since the Russian invasion in 2022. Australia also announced it will sign on as an “operational partner” to a new NATO command for Ukraine. Australia’s assistance to Ukraine aims to send a message of unity with Western allies against military aggression and to act as a deterrent against Chinese ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.
  • Marles’ U.K. visit quelled concerns that the new U.K. Labour government would overturn the AUKUS deal and withdraw from engagement in the Indo-Pacific. These concerns were spurred by claims the Conservative Party made during the election campaign and stoked when U.K. Labour launched a review of its entire defense strategy. This signaled that engaging with Europe would be its foreign policy priority. However, during his visit to the United Kingdom, Marles was assured that the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer is fully supportive of AUKUS and motivated to sustain and deepen U.K. defense engagement in the Indo-Pacific.

Implications

  • As the IP4 begins to come together as a serious strategic grouping of like-minded partners, concerns about a growing divide in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the “Quad”) between Australia, India, Japan and the United States are multiplying. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly before the NATO summit, signing several agreements to expand bilateral relations and cooperation. This puts India increasingly at odds with Quad partners, who strongly asserted their opposition to Russia at the NATO summit.
  • Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele chose to make his first international visit to Australia, signaling the beginning of a reset in relations under the new leadership. This is a symbolic strategic win for Australia since the former prime minister eschewed security relations with Australia in preference for China, signing a policing and security agreement with Beijing in 2022.

We will continue to keep you updated on developments in Australia as they occur. If you have any comments or questions, please contact BGA Australia Managing Director Michael “Mick” McNeill at mmcneill@bowergroupasia.com.

Best regards,

BGA Australia Team

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Managing Director

Mick is a highly-experienced government relations expert and trusted advisor on consensus building, conflict resolution and legislative developments. He has played an integral role in helping parties achieve desired outcomes in areas of national security, health policy, foreign policy and reputational crisis management, as well as media relations, communications campaigns, immigration and human rights. Mick has two decades’ experience working with government as a media analyst, political adviser and NGO advocacy manager. After a stint serving as an adviser to an Australian senator, Mick took on the role of the locally engaged senior political specialist at the U.S. Embassy in ... Read More