Australia to stick with its defense spending targets despite US pressure

ANKARA

Australia said Thursday that it will stick with its defense spending targets despite pressure from US President Donald Trump, who wants allies to reduce their reliance on Washington, local media reported.

Defense Minister Richard Marles, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in the Netherlands, said Australia would decide its own spending levels to meet its own military needs, local broadcaster SBS News reported.

That risks drawing a rebuke from Trump, who has threatened to punish allies with tougher trade deals if they refuse to rachet up their defense spending.

Member countries of NATO, of which Australia is not a member, agreed to increase defense spending targets to 5% of GDP.

But Spain refused, prompting Trump to threaten to punish the country with a tougher trade agreement.

Australia, which plans to increase its share of defense spending from 2% to 2.3% by 2033-34, is also seeking to negotiate a reprieve from US tariffs on imports, including a 50% levy on steel and aluminum.

"We have gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there, and the kind of defense force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and then to resource that," Marles said.

"And what that has seen is the biggest peacetime increase in Australian defense spending," he added.

Marles did not speak directly with Trump or US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite Canberra's intensive efforts to arrange a first face-to-face meeting of an Australian minister with the US president.