July 14, 2023
Defence Minister Richard Marles has talked down NATO’s role in the Indo-Pacific after Anthony Albanese attended the NATO summit in Lithuania and met with the Ukrainian leader for the second time.
In his 20 minutes with Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Albanese, having committed one of the countries Wedgetail reconnaissance planes and 100 personnel to the coalition effort, added another 30 Bushmasters to head to the war zone.
Touching down in Perth on Thursday night, Mr Albanese said he didn’t blame the Ukrainians for requesting more military items from Western nations, after British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace lashed wartime President Volodymyr Zelensky for presenting “Amazon lists” to countries.
While in Vilnius, Prime Minister Albanese attended a meeting of Indo-Pacific partners from Japan, Korea and New Zealand, before joining the general NATO summit and speaking with American President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Mr Marles said on Thursday it was important not to overstate what NATO was doing in the Indo-Pacific, and what Australia’s intentions were in Europe.
“I mean … having an eye to the Indo-Pacific makes perfect sense to me, as we have an eye to Europe,” he told ABC RN Breakfast.
“NATO’s principal area of engagement is the North Atlantic and Europe … But for us, our primary interest is in seeing our security lying in the collective security of the Indo-Pacific.”
“If you look at all the engagement that we have done as a government since coming to power, yes, there have been some visits to Europe and yes, the Prime Minister is in Lithuania now. But far and above the focus of our engagement has been all the visits and engagement that we’ve done with our region, because that’s where our security principally lies,” he said.
“So, I wouldn’t overstate NATO’s interest in our region.”
Overnight, Volodymyr Zelensky bristled that the NATO alliance meeting had not provided Ukraine with a timeline for NATO membership.
While Mr Marles wouldn’t comment on Ukraine’s membership of NATO, he said NATO and Australia had the same goal – to support Ukraine to win its conflict with Russia “on its own terms”.
But Mr Wallace warned Ukraine: “There is a slight word of caution here which is that, whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude”.
Mr Albanese told Perth’s 6PR he did not judge Ukraine for requesting lists of military items.
“This is a struggle that requires international support. I am not critical of the Ukrainians for that. They would always like more, they’re in a war for their survival as a sovereign state. We are providing support that is appropriate and … needed”, Mr Albanese said.
He described attending the NATO summit as “fascinating”, 40km from the Belarus border in the midst of a European war.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson backed the government’s decision to send 30 more Bushmasters to Ukraine but criticised the timing.
“If we’re holding back much-needed military assistance for a political announcement, for a photo opportunity, that would be a shocking indictment on the government and the Prime Minister,” he said.
