Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, makes the case (in The Canberra Times) why AUKUS makes Australia a stronger ally and why business as usual is not enough.
The world around us has become more uncertain and more precarious than at any time since the end of the World War II.
Our region, the Indo-Pacific, is witness to renewed major-power competition which is driving the biggest military build-up we have seen anywhere in the world during the last 70 years. On the other side of the world, the war in Ukraine is demonstrating in real time the threat of conflict on the rules-based order. As we face this juncture it is abundantly clear that sober, responsible, and clear-eyed statecraft has never been more important.
