Australia’s alliance at a crossroads as the US turns inward
Has Australia decided to deepen its reliance on the US just as it abandons its friends to embrace isolationism?
The world has changed dramatically since former defence minister Kim Beazley left Parliament in 2007.
“The warning time on a possible attack used to be ten years for a local threat capable of major damage,” Beazley told Capital Brief via text message.
“Now, [it’s] present. The region was a backwater. Now, [it’s] a contested zone.”
Beazley, who signed off on the Collins-class submarines that preceded AUKUS, said several factors had deepened Australia’s reliance on the US over the past two decades.
