“Australia, the United States, Japan and the Philippines should establish a formal defence alliance to counter China’s growing military power in Asia, according to a former top adviser to Joe Biden.”
” ‘At every decision point – whether it’s building infrastructure or a communications network or purchasing a certain capability – my recommendation is that the decision should be made through the lens of ensuring it can be used collectively among a close-knit group of partners, rather than having a Frankenstein model of alliances, where we have just all these different types of systems and capabilities that don’t work well together.’ ”
“He said the pact should contain a mutual defence clause similar to NATO’s article five, which states that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all, requiring a joint response.”
” ‘I think there’s still an open question in Washington about whether Australia has sufficient funding to both fully fund AUKUS, which is an important priority, while fulfilling other important commitments related to missile defence, infrastructure upgrades, and other capability investments … It’s going to be important for Australia to find the resources to do all of that and not be drawing resources away from other priority areas to fund AUKUS.’ ”