US ‘Respectfully’ Urges Australia to Boost Its Defense Spending
A Royal Australian Air Force EA-18G Growler fires flares during a display at the Australian International Airshow.
Photographer: William West/AFP/Getty Images
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Australia to increase its military spending, in the latest push from the Trump administration for its allies to shoulder a greater responsibility for their own protection.
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who met Hegseth on Friday at a meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, said the US defense secretary had made the request “in a very respectful and dignified way.”