Top-secret war-gaming exercises conducted for the Albanese government have found the Australian Defence Force would struggle to respond to alarming but plausible scenarios such as China establishing a military base in a nearby Pacific nation.
said former defence chief Angus Houston and former defence minister Stephen Smith commissioned detailed analysis from experts within the Defence Department about specific scenarios that could draw Australia into armed conflict and shatter stability in the Indo-Pacific.
A base on the Solomon Islands or Vanuatu would bring the Chinese military within just 2000 kilometres of the Australian mainland and upend the current balance of power in the south Pacific. The authors of the strategic review, former defence minister Stephen Smith and former defence chief Angus Houston, with Defence Minister Richard Marles last year.The measure, to be announced on Tuesday, will cost $400 million over four years and aims to combat the hollowing out of the Defence Force’s middle ranks.by considering allowing foreign citizens, including Pacific Islanders, to serve in the Defence Force, a proposal backed by several Pacific experts.
The analysis helped shape the review’s damning finding that the Defence Force was no longer “fit for purpose” and proposals for a new military doctrine that “encompasses the defence of Australia against potential threats arising from major power competition, including the prospect of conflict”. A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government would not comment on the classified version of the review.
Balakrishnan criticised those who frame Taiwan’s future “as a broader ideological contest on the issue of democracy versus autocracy”, saying this view was dangerous.
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