By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Overseas Minister Penny Wong met her Indian and Japanese counterparts in Washington and stated the invitation for Quad overseas ministers to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration confirmed an “iron-clad commitment” to shut cooperation within the Indo Pacific area.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio seems on monitor for affirmation as Trump’s secretary of state on Monday, clearing the way in which for a gathering of Quad overseas ministers the next day, folks acquainted with the matter beforehand stated.
The grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. was fashioned amid shared issues about China’s rising energy.
“It’s a demonstration of the collective commitment of all countries to the Quad, an iron-clad commitment in this time where close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific is so important,” Wong stated on Sunday of the overseas ministers’ invitation to Washington.
Wong stated she would additionally meet Rubio and different members of the Trump administration, including the U.S. alliance was important to Australia’s defence and financial prosperity.
Wong is anticipated to debate the AUKUS defence expertise partnership with the U.S. and Britain, a decades-long plan to promote nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.
She informed reporters in Washington that Australia was “on a pathway of increasing defence expenditure”.
“Our focus is very much on how do we continue to deliver on AUKUS, because we do believe that capability is so important for deterrence, which is the way in which you can secure peace,” she stated.
Defence Minister Richard Marles stated in a radio interview on Monday that AUKUS would see Australia make a big funding contribution to the American industrial base to hurry up U.S. manufacturing charges of Virginia class submarines.
