AUKUS Forum : The Trump administration’s Pentagon has issued its strongest warning yet: Australia must significantly boost its defence budget or risk being unable to both defend itself and fulfill its commitments under AUKUS.

Senior US defence figures appear increasingly concerned that a failure by Australia to spend more on defence could have a bearing on the nation’s ability to operate as an effective ally in deterring a more aggressive Beijing. “For Australia in particular, it is vitally important that they are able to raise defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP,” a US Defence official told The Australian. “That will allow them to generate and field the kind of forces required not just to defend themselves but work together closely with us to maintain deterrence in the region.

“It is not an abstraction. This is a concrete objective. AUKUS is an expensive thing. Increasing defence spending is going to be vitally important for Australia to achieve its stated objectives under AUKUS while also modernising the rest of the ADF. At a certain point, it’s just maths. They need to spend more on defence. “I think we can say with confidence that if Australia does not raise defence spending it is going to struggle to field the forces required to defend Australia but also to make good on its commitments to others. “But we are hopeful that Australia will be able to lean in and make these decisions – 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence spending; that is the new global standard.”