Doorstop, Philippines

SUBJECTS: ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting; US-Australia Defence Relationship; US Force Posture; F-35 Program. 

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: It’s a pleasure to be here in Cebu for the ADMM‑Plus meeting. For Australia, it's hard to really conceive of the defence of our country without the peace, stability, security of the regions in which we live. Central amongst those is southeast Asia, and the heart of the security, and the stability, and the peace of this region has been ASEAN for many decades. ASEAN centrality is utterly fundamental to Australia's national interest, which makes this meeting profoundly important for our country, which is why it is so important that we're here. I'd really like to congratulate the Philippines on its being the chair of ASEAN this year. I’d very much like to acknowledge my counterpart, Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who's our host in Cebu this week. He's doing a fantastic job. ASEAN also has incredible convening power. Yesterday, in addition to meeting a number of ASEAN defence ministers – Secretary Teodoro, the Defense Minister of Vietnam – I also met my counterparts from the United States, from India, Japan, Korea. I mean, all of these are countries which are deeply important to Australia's national interest and [I] had great meetings with all of them, as we did a four-way meeting between Australia, the Philippines, Japan, and the United States. That's becoming an increasingly important gathering. We've met as a group of four now over a number of years, and the depth of our cooperation together is growing and we are really appreciative for that. I think across the board, the tenor of the meetings that we've had is reflecting the importance of maintaining the rules of the road in this part of the world; the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation. All that is fundamentally important to the free flow of trade. I would remind people that most of Australia's trade goes through the South China Sea. So the freedom of navigation, the free flow of trade in this part of the world is completely central to our economy, our national interest, our national prosperity, and that continues to be a focus of the activity of the Royal Australian Navy, and not just the Navy, our Defence Force. Finally, I'd say, just in respect of the Philippines, we've got a growing bilateral relationship here. We have had, during the course of this year, thousands of Australian personnel come through the Philippines in one form or another; be it training of members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, be it Exercise Balikatan or just simply port visits and other maritime cooperation activities. And it speaks to a really significant bilateral defence relationship which is growing between ourselves and the Philippines. And again, I'm very grateful to my partnership with Secretary Teodoro in seeing that happen.

JOURNALIST: For the first question, could you please elaborate– Hegseth mentioned about the commitment to swiftly execute force posture collaboration. What does that mean?

MARLES: Well, we've had a growing US force posture within Australia actually over the last 15 years, since the commencement of the Marine Rotation Force‑Darwin back in 2011. Since then that particular rotation has grown such that we had 2,500 Marines come through Darwin. They've actually just finished their rotation in the last couple of weeks for this dry season. Next year, we will commence the Submarine Rotation Force‑West, which is based at HMAS Stirling, south of Perth in Western Australia. That's a very significant step down the pathway of the AUKUS agreement of Australia acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine capability. And indeed we've got US personnel at HMAS Stirling, south of Perth, right now preparing for the beginning of SRF‑West, and right now we have the USS Colorado, a Virginia class submarine, at HMAS Stirling. So they are examples of US force posture in Australia, but in fact that that force posture it goes across all the domains; land, air, and sea, but also cyber and space. And it's growing in complexity. We're doing more together in logistics, for example, and as we've had successive AUSMIN meetings, the Australia-US Ministerial Forum, we've been seeing that force posture develop, and we look forward to the next meeting of AUSMIN in the coming months.

JOURNALIST: Would you say that Australia's– or how would you characterise Australia's defence cooperation with partners in this region? Is that cooperation at the highest levels ever, and what factors are driving this cooperation?

MARLES: Yeah, it's a really good question and the answer is yes. It really is at the highest levels ever. I mean, you can look at a range of countries– here in the Philippines, obviously, but Japan. I had a great meeting with my new Korean counterpart yesterday and we're looking to expand there. Indonesia, we earlier this year signed a Treaty on Common Security, coming on the back of the implementation and signing of a Defence Cooperation Agreement, which I did with now President Prabowo, then‑Secretary of Defense Prabowo. We signed an Alliance with Papua New Guinea, our first alliance as a nation since establishing the Alliance with the United States back in 1951. We're doing more with India, more with Singapore, more with Malaysia. So all of that, all of those relations are very much at a high point. I think what it reflects is that the rules‑based order is under pressure around the world actually, obviously the war in Ukraine, what we see in the Middle East, but it's under pressure here in the Indo‑Pacific. And now is a time to double down on friends, and to double down on neighbours, and to be working more closely together to provide for our collective security, but also to provide for the rules-based order here. And I think that's why this meeting this week is so important, ADMM‑Plus. But underneath that multilateral, growing bilateral relations with all of those countries. 

JOURNALIST: Can you take us through the quad meetings yesterday? Because the Philippine government didn't, you know, give us any details. Can you take us through those meetings yesterday?

MARLES: The meeting with the Philippines, Japan, US, Australia?

JOURNALIST: Yes. 

MARLES: Well look, we had a really good meeting of the four of us. I think the last time we met as a four was actually at ADMM‑Plus last year in Kuala Lumpur, but it comes off the back of now a number of years where we have gathered together. We will be releasing more information, I think, out of that meeting in the coming day. But we spoke about how we can work more closely together in respect of concepts of operations in and around this part of the world. We spoke together about how we can jointly invest in infrastructure here in the Philippines, and we've seen significant infrastructure developments across the Philippines, and that's– I mean it's in Luzon, but not just Luzon, in Mindanao, and so we're looking at that. We're looking at greater coordination amongst our policy, our defence policy experts. And so across the board there's actually a really significant substantive effort between the four countries. And that's why I'd say, I think the takeout message from this is that it is an increasingly important gathering, this group of four, and there is now quite a substantive agenda. And perhaps another way of thinking about this is that if you look at Exercise Balikatan, which began its life as a bilateral exercise between the Philippines and the United States, this year there were hundreds of Australian personnel participating in that. Next year we'll have Exercise Alon, which is the major bilateral exercise between Australia and the Philippines, but as part of that you will see hundreds of US personnel. Last Exercise Alon Japan was an observer. So you're seeing us do more together in that sense as well and it really is becoming a grouping which is working much more closely together.

JOURNALIST: What do you think about the proposal of Hegseth to build an ASEAN-US defence framework that he intends to start next year with Singapore hosting ASEAN? What are your thoughts on it?

MARLES: Well, I think ASEAN is profoundly important, as I said. It really matters that America is here and I'm very grateful for the attendance of Secretary Hegseth at ADMM‑Plus. He was at ADMM‑Plus last year as well and I think growing engagement and cooperation between the United States and ASEAN can only be a good thing.

JOURNALIST: In the four-way meeting last night, I mean, what message did you, Japan and the Philippines have for Secretary Hegseth? I mean, the Philippines is on the front lines with China on the South China Sea. We've seen some additional Chinese activities around Japan’s southwest islands. I mean, what message did you all have for Secretary Hegseth in the meeting yesterday? 

MARLES: Well, I wouldn't put it in the context of that dynamic. I mean, I think this is a shared mission. It's a shared sense that we have amongst the four of us. And I think the challenges that are being faced in this part of the world and the pressures that are being experienced is well understood by all four countries, and there is a real commitment to work together to meet those challenges. So it's not as though any three have a message for the fourth. It's actually all of us working very closely together on what we all see as a critical shared mission.

JOURNALIST: Two more questions from my end. First is, what concrete steps is Australia prepared to take with ASEAN member states to strengthen maritime security and deter dangerous actions in the South China Sea while avoiding military escalation? And the second question of mine is, may we get an update on the investigation into the missing F-35 fighter parts diverted from Australia to Hong Kong?

MARLES: Well, in relation to the second question, I don't have any update in relation to that. It's obviously a matter that's being worked through with Lockheed Martin who's the prime contractor. But, you know, we're confident about, I mean, the fundamental information security of Australia’s F‑35 program and our engagement with Lockheed, but I don't have any further information than what we previously said in respect of that. In relation to the first question, again a really good question because maritime security and stability is at the heart of ASEAN's agenda. It is everyone's intention and objective to engage in deterrence of conflict so that we can maintain the peace, stability, and security of this region. So we are all in the pursuit of peace. We are seeing lots of activity from an Australian point of view. It really is the bulk of the effort of the Royal Australian Navy to engage in activities in this part of the world. So we've done a number of maritime cooperation activities with the Philippines this year. I think it's four specifically with the Philippines, but we've done a range of other activities throughout southeast Asia with other ASEAN countries. And in a sense, it's a bit of the answer I gave to the previous question. You can look at what we're doing in the bilateral relationship with just about every ASEAN country and it is growing significantly, and maritime activities are very much central to that. The Five Powers Defence Arrangement, for example, which involves Malaysia and Singapore, we are engaged there in exercises. And so it is a huge suite of effort that we are engaged in, which binds us very closely to our ASEAN partners.

JOURNALIST: Are you satisfied with US force posture in the Asia Pacific right now? We've seen some US assets going to the Middle East. How do you feel about the US positioning in Asia right now?

MARLES: Good is the answer. I mean, we understand there's an immediacy to the conflict in the Middle East, but if you take a step back and look at the key strategic documents of the United States – the National Defense Strategy, the National Security Strategy – places an emphasis upon the Indo-Pacific, this part of the world, and that's reflected in resource. The biggest combatant command in the United States Armed Forces is the Pacific Command, and you do see significant American force posture throughout southeast Asia, east Asia, and so, you know, we're very grateful for that. It's very important, in our view, to maintaining balance in this region and to providing for the peace and stability of this region.

JOURNALIST: Maybe this is the last question. Can you talk about your meeting with your Quad counterparts; India, Japan, the US? Because I think you were talking about a different meeting earlier with I think with the so-called ‘squad’.

MARLES: I did meet with each of the defence ministers of– I have my proper bilateral with Japan today, but I did see Minister Koizumi yesterday, and we did the bilateral with Minister Rajnath Singh of India, and of course with Secretary of War Hegseth. I mean, all of those meetings were really good. The meeting with Pete was really productive, as it always is. We were meeting in a context of looking forward to the next AUSMIN, which we see happening in in the next couple of months or so. We spoke about the issues that we've just spoken about in terms of US force posture, but also progress in respect of AUKUS, and I mentioned that. And that really is happening at a pace, we're meeting our milestones. It really is a very significant endeavour between our two countries, but we are now bringing it to reality. We've got a relationship with India which is expanding very rapidly in a defence sense, about which we are very optimistic. There's a lot of ambition on both sides. I see Minister Singh now– this is two or three times I think this year that I've seen him, it’s at least twice, but we meet regularly. A focus is obviously maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean. I mean, we are an Indian Ocean nation as well and that is– collaboration there and providing enhanced maritime domain awareness in the north east Indian Ocean is really fundamental to Australia's security, and we're doing that really closely together. We're doing more in respect of defence industry cooperation with India. So, India is a really vital partner for Australia and we're very optimistic about the future of that. And Japan, I mean, it's a deep relationship, but it's again never been closer. I have as much engagement with Minister Koizumi as I would have with any of my defence minister counterparts around the world. He and I have been a number of times this year, again, we'll do our formal bilateral meeting today but we were at dinner last night together and part of that four-way meeting. We are doing more in an operational sense in terms of exercising with each other. We're seeing a greater presence of Japan using the Australian continent, which we are really excited about. We're doing more in respect of defence industry, the obvious point being that our next general purpose frigate is the Mogami class built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in its facility in Nagasaki. So that's, you know, a very deep and strong relationship.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask just one more. You mentioned earlier that the rules‑based order in this region is under pressure and that's what's driving Australia's defence cooperation. Where is this pressure coming from? Is it China? Is it coming from the US? Is it coming from some other source? What's going on?

MARLES: Look, I think we are seeing China seeking to shape the world around it, to assert itself within its region, and that is very much here, and that is providing challenges for Australia in terms of how we understand the rules of the road. And so our focus is very much on asserting the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, that's what needs to apply here, and we are seeing pressure placed upon that. And in addition to that, we're obviously seeing the biggest conventional military build-up that the world has seen since the end of the Second World War from China, and it's not coming with strategic reassurance. In other words, there's not an explanation from China as to why it's doing this. And all of that is creating the condition of pressure. We say that to China. We've made those points publicly before. But that is making it really clear for us that we need to be ensuring that how we understand the rules of the road continue to apply. Because for a middle power like Australia, it is actually the rules which give us agency. It's what allows international issues to be determined not by power and might, but by the rule of law. Because obviously, in a world that is only about power and might, that's a world in which a middle power like Australia has much less agency. So you can see why our national interest is bound up in the rules, and that's why we're asserting our position.

ENDS