THE SQUIZ 
The US will increase its air, land and sea forces in Australia in an effort to help maintain “a free and open Indo-Pacific region”. Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles met with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for this year’s Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in Washington DC yesterday. There’s no word on when it will begin or the exact number of troops involved, but the deployment will include bomber aircraft and fighter jets. Austin says the increased military cooperation will “deepen our inter-operability and create more agile and resilient capabilities”, which is a fancy way of saying we’ll be working closely with the US military to be faster and stronger in our region. Plans to invite Japan to cooperate more closely with the US and Oz were also flagged.

WHY DO WE NEED MORE US TROOPS IN OZ?
Austin pointed to China’s growing presence as the biggest threat to “regional peace and stability” and condemned its “coercive actions”, particularly towards Taiwan… Reports say the US sees Oz as potentially playing a key logistical role in defending Taiwan if China tries to reclaim it. There’s a bit of a backstory there but essentially, it could happen as Chinese President Xi Jinping recently said “reunification” with Taiwan “must be fulfilled”. In response, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry says it will continue to work closely with like-minded countries to protect the Taiwan Strait and defend democratic values. Looking more broadly at the China relationship, Blinken gave a nod to China’s “economic coercion”, saying the US “will not leave Australia alone on the pitch”. But in a speech this morning, Wong is expected to call for increased economic engagement with Asia and discourage the US and China from fuelling a potentially catastrophic conflict through “nationalistic domestic posturing”.

WHAT ELSE DID THEY TALK ABOUT?
There’s one thing we’re not getting an A+ for… All 4 officials agreed the Aussie defence force has a “capability gap”, and Marles says Oz really needs nuclear-powered submarine capabilities. So remember the spat between Australia and France last year when former PM Scott Morrison canned a deal to build conventional subs and announced plans to build nuclear-powered subs with the US and UK? It set our defence timeline back, and leaders are now making plans to cover the gap… There’s speculation that Oz wants to nab one of America’s new nuclear-capable bombers, the B-21 Raider. Not much is known about the secretly-developed aircraft, but if Oz gets one, it’ll cost a pretty penny – about $1 billion each. There’s been no response from China to all of this just yet, but pencil in something along the lines that they’re not happy…