US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet together with his Australian and Japanese counterparts in Darwin this weekend, US officers in Australia mentioned.
Trump mentioned on Tuesday he has picked Pete Hegseth, a Fox Information commentator and veteran, as his secretary of defence.
Defence Minister Richard Marles mentioned in an interview with Sky Information Australia, which like Fox is owned by Information Company, he had not met Hegseth and congratulated him on the “vastly important position”.
“I actually stay up for the chance of assembly Pete Hegseth and of working carefully with him, as I’ve with Lloyd Austin, who I will be seeing later this week,” he mentioned.
“A lot of the best way through which our relationship, our full bilateral relationship between Australia and America performs out occurs by the prism of defence,” he added.
Australia had dedicated to “historic ranges of elevated defence spending” with A$50 billion (US$32.69 billion) of extra spending over the last decade, he mentioned.
Albanese, who will journey to the APEC and G20 summits in Peru and Brazil over the following few days, mentioned his focus was on “free and honest commerce”, amid strategic competitors between the US and China.
“We expect that we are able to play a task as a center energy … we after all have an alliance with the US, however China is our main buying and selling companion,” he mentioned.
China is Australia’s largest export market, with commerce dominated by iron ore, gasoline and coal.