Australia confronts a more threatening and complex strategic landscape than when the Labor government took office three years ago, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Friday during his first overseas trip since the recent election.
Speaking to Sky News Australia from Singapore, where he is attending a Defence Dialogue focused on arms proliferation in the Asia-Pacific, Marles said the security situation has deteriorated since May 2022.
"We talked a lot when we came to office back in May of 2022 that we were facing the most complex, in some ways, the most threatening strategic landscape that our nation had faced since the end of the Second World War, and nothing in the last three years has made that simpler," Marles said. "Indeed, I think if anything in the last three years, that situation has become more complex."
The Deputy Prime Minister met Friday morning with U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, building on discussions held in Washington in February about strengthening collective security efforts in the Indo-Pacific region.
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