US & Australia Declare ‘Full Steam Ahead’ on AUKUS After Pentagon Review Sparks Global Concerns

APT

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, welcomed Australia’s Foreign Minister and Defence Deputy PM for a major ministerial meeting in Washington. Rubio highlighted Australia as the only ally that has fought with the US in every major conflict for the last four to five decades, calling the partnership “incredibly strong.” The talks reaffirmed full momentum behind AUKUS, expanded cooperation after the Prime Minister’s October visit, and a continued commitment to regional frameworks such as the Quad with Japan and India.  #AUKUS #MarcoRubio #USAustralia

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Thank you for covering us here today. I want to welcome our colleagues from Australia

00:17in this ministerial meeting. It's the first one that I've done in my time here in the last year.

00:23Obviously, the same is true for Secretary Hexth, and I want to welcome both the foreign minister

00:27and the deputy prime minister for defense for both joining us here today. This is an incredibly

00:33strong alliance. In fact, as we were discussing a few moments ago, it is our only ally that has

00:38fought with us in every war over the last four or five decades, and we're very grateful to them

00:45for that. This is a very strong partnership. It's a strong alliance, and what we want to do is

00:50continue to build on it. We think we have a lot of momentum behind this alliance coming off the visit

00:55with the prime minister here in October, which we also had a chance to participate in and then

01:00follow up events to it, and we felt very strongly after that that we have real momentum. We wanted

01:05to do this here before the end of the year to continue to build on that alliance and to continue

01:10to build on that momentum that came from that meeting and to work together on our shared priorities,

01:14and we have so many. We truly have no better friend. In addition to that strong alliance,

01:19we're also deeply committed to the quad, the concept of, in conjunction with Japan and India,

01:24the building out of this quad, which is something you'll see. In fact, it was my first meeting

01:28as secretary of state. I had been confirmed, sworn in downstairs, and came right up on that elevator

01:35and into this room, and it was in this very room that I did my first event as secretary of state with

01:40the quad, and we look forward to, I think we've had at least three meetings this year, if I recall correctly,

01:45and we'll continue to build on that in the year to come. We look to do more of those,

01:49and so we have a lot of things we've worked together on at the direction of the president.

01:56AUKUS is full steam ahead, as he said, and I know the Department of War, Secretary Hexeth will discuss

02:02that further, has conducted a review, which it's a review about how we can expand this relationship,

02:09about how to build on it so that it can be about many things, and I know we've also signed

02:14landmark critical mineral framework agreement. This is something we share in common, not just with

02:18Australia, but with many of our allies around the world, the desire to diversify supply chains,

02:25and the belief that in order for us to be able to do anything, whether it's defend our countries,

02:29defend our allies, or defend each other, but also to build our economies, and to prosper as economies,

02:35we have to have critical mineral supplies and supply chains that are reliable, and that are diverse,

02:41and not overly invested in one place where they could be used as leverage against us or our partners

02:47of the world. And so this is something that you'll find the U.S. and Australia working very closely on,

02:52and it's at the cornerstone of everything we plan to do together in the months and years to come.

02:57So I want to welcome you to Washington. Thank you for joining us and doing it and agreeing to doing

03:00it here. At the end of this year, I know you have many other obligations and places. You're going to be

03:06traveling quite extensively in the days to come as well, so we're very grateful that you were willing to come

03:10here and join us, and we look forward to reciprocating in the new year by visiting you in Australia,

03:15as I look forward to. And it's one of my... I actually have never been, and I need to go,

03:22and it's a very efficient trip, because I can say I went to a country and a continent all at once,

03:26and so very rarely can you say that. So thank you for joining us here today. We're grateful and honored

03:33by your presence. Thank you very much, Secretary Rubio. Can I thank you and Secretary Hegseth for

03:39hosting us in this extraordinary room, as you said, where we've had our first Quad meeting

03:45after you were sworn in. We're really, Richard and I are so happy to be here, so honored to

03:52participate in another OSMEN meeting, and to build on the very successful meeting between the President

03:58and the Prime Minister, and including the historic Critical Minerals deal that they delivered.

04:07OSMEN was established, that is, this meeting was established under President Ronald Reagan

04:12and Prime Minister Bob Hawke. And in 1985, President Reagan spoke of our common defense

04:18of freedom from the First and Second World Wars, and said, all this has nurtured the bonds of

04:24friendship between our two peoples. Today, the United States and Australia as much as ever

04:30rely on each other. That remains true today, and as Secretary Rubio said, Australian soldiers

04:36have fought beside American troops in every major battle since World War I, and we continue

04:41to rely on each other. Not just our service men and women, whom we thank for their service,

04:46but all our people. And that's because the work we do together is indispensable to a peaceful,

04:51stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and this is something Secretary Rubio has spoken so eloquently

04:57about. The United States is our principal ally and our principal strategic partner, and together

05:05we navigate volatility, we invest in each other, we invest in the region's security, and we boost

05:11each other's prosperity, whether that's through investment in critical minerals,

05:16critical technology, Australian superannuation, or of course AUKUS. Australia's approach to

05:22the alliance has always been to ensure, work to ensure it delivers concrete benefits for

05:28our security and prosperity, and for that of the United States. And AUKUS is central to

05:32that, a win for Australia, a win for the US, and a win for the United Kingdom. And we welcome

05:37President Trump's statement, we are full steam ahead. We are full steam ahead. So we look

05:43forward very much to these consultations today, very happy to be here in Washington. We'd also,

05:49as Secretary Rubio, be very honoured to welcome you to Australia when you are able to come.

05:55So thank you again for hosting us. We look forward to the discussions.

05:58Secretary Rubio, thank you for hosting us. Deputy Prime Minister Marles, we've seen each other often,

06:07and we will continue to inform Minister Wong. Thank you for being here. It was mentioned,

06:11this is the 40th year of Ausma, 1985, and it's not lost on any of us the depth of the friendship our

06:19two countries have had and our militaries have had for quite some time. And it was Ronald Reagan who,

06:23just like the Trump administration, put a practical application to that partnership 40 years ago by

06:29ensuring that our leaders are meeting together regularly to stay on track in rowing in the same

06:35direction, because we share the same values, the same neighborhood, both Pacific nations. And

06:42our leadership is coming together on a regular basis as a reflection of that. So on the defense side,

06:46we're working on force posture, we're working on defense industrial cooperation,

06:50first on force posture initiatives. We're upgrading infrastructure on air bases in Queensland and the

06:56Northern Territory that allows for additional U.S. bomber rotations. We're upgrading logistics and

07:01infrastructure in Darwin, so more U.S. Marines can do rotational deployments and pre-positioning

07:08MB-22 Ospreys. This establishes new and resilient logistics networks across Australia.

07:15We're deepening our cooperation on the defense industrial base, cooperation on guided weapons production and

07:19lethal capabilities, two-year road maps on Australia's guided weapons and explosive ordinance enterprise,

07:26groundbreaking cooperative actions on things like Gimler's guided missile launch rocket systems and

07:32precision strike missiles. And we're working toward co-production and co-sustainment of hypersonic

07:37attack cruise missiles, co-sustainment air-to-air missiles, cooperative programs across the board,

07:43including Mark 54 torpedoes. We're also building on the historic framework and

07:49critical minerals cooperation that's been mentioned already by President Trump and Prime Minister

07:54Albanese signed in October. Critical minerals and rare earths are a huge part of ensuring both

08:01countries can operate the way we need to in that region around the world. And finally, as we move,

08:06as was mentioned, full steam ahead on AUKUS, we applaud Australia's upcoming delivery of an additional

08:121 billion to help expand U.S. submarine production capacity. We're strengthening AUKUS so that it works

08:18for America, for Australia, and for the UK. There's a lot we're going to do together in the months ahead.

08:24This meeting will be, as was laid out by President Trump, as I mentioned at Reagan just a couple days

08:30ago, these are practical, realistic ways that our two countries can come together to ensure that we provide

08:37peace through strength for both of our nations. The stronger we are together, the more we can deter

08:42the kinds of conflicts neither of us want to see, and this is a deepening of that partnership. I'm

08:47grateful to be here. Thank you. Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth, Marco Pete, on behalf of Penny and I

08:55thank you very much for having us here in Washington today. It is a real pleasure to be here in the 40th

09:03anniversary of Ausmin. Our relationship with the United States is the most important relationship

09:10that we have and indeed our alliance with the United States is really the cornerstone of Australian

09:16strategic and foreign policy and today is an important moment to take that forward again over

09:23the next 12 months. We are living in a much more contested world where it really matters to be doubling

09:32down with friends and allies and obviously America is front and centre and foremost for Australia

09:39in that respect. We are very grateful for the meeting that happened between Prime Minister

09:45Albanese and President Trump a couple of months ago. It's very significant in the context of the

09:51relationship. I think also President Trump has given us the motto for our meeting today which is full

09:56steam ahead and it is very much full steam ahead in terms of the alliance, in terms of the progress on

10:04AUKUS, in preparing ourselves for the establishment of the submarine rotational force west at the end of

10:112027. That is a significant moment in the journey of AUKUS but right now we've had an increased number of

10:20visits of US nuclear powered submarines to Australia including the USS Vermont which has been at HMAS Sterling

10:28over the last six weeks or so where it's undergone the most extensive maintenance that a US nuclear

10:34submarine has undertaken outside of the United States and we are really pleased with the progress that we

10:41are seeing in terms of building Australia's capabilities to ultimately be able to operate our own

10:48nuclear powered submarine capability going forward. At every AUKUS meeting that we've had over the

10:56since 2022 when Penny and I first started attending these AUKUS meetings a central part of what we have

11:05sought to do in the defence space is to increase the US footprint in Australia and this AUKUS will be no

11:13different as Pete has just taken you through be it infrastructure which enables greater bomber rotations

11:19in Australia or be it what we are doing in terms of enhancing logistics capability of the United States

11:26in Australia having more American equipment be stored in Australia for example the Ospreys these are just

11:35the examples of what we are doing across every domain air sea and ground but also space and cyber to have the

11:43most extensive American force posture that we have seen in terms of the breadth of that in the Australian continent

11:50and that is so important going forward to make very clear in our region that Australia and America

11:57stand side by side in working together to contribute to the peace and security of the Indo-Pacific.

12:03As we meet today there are almost 900 Australian servicemen and women who are embedded in the United

12:11States defence forces across the US indeed the deputy commanders of the US Army the US Navy and the US

12:18Air Force in the Pacific are all now institutionally Australian and that is an example of the degree to

12:25which our two countries work so closely together in respect of defence. Penny and I are really looking forward to

12:31taking our relationship and our alliance again forward in the meetings that we have today we're working

12:39really well with this administration and we are very excited about working with you Marco and Pete to

12:45take the alliance forward into the future. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

12:52for

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