G'day, USA: Why is the U.S. accelerating military ties with Australia?

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, right, was all smiles hosting Australian Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles at the Pentagon on Sept. 2. (Air Force Staff Sgt. Eugene Oliver)Social SharingA handshake, a hug and a laugh was how U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth greeted Australia’s Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles at the Pentagon earlier this month. 

Hegseth also gave the media a thumbs-up before the pair sat down for one of their now-regular meetings.

During his opening remarks, Hegseth called the event a "reflection of the deepening partnership ... at a personal level between our administrations, between our countries, between our militaries."

The high-level talks ended with a declaration that the U.S. would accelerate its military presence in Australia — which already includes a remote desert intelligence base and annual rotations of thousands of U.S. troops across Australian bases.

The U.S. remains Australia’s closest ally and principal strategic partner, said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a statement a few days after the meeting.

For Canadians, seeing Hegseth and Vice-President JD Vance embrace Australia at the Pentagon — and in tweets — while the U.S. administration targets this country's economy, military and sovereignty might be infuriating.

But analysts say there is a transactional tone to the tightening U.S.-Australia alliance — one that's partly explained by geography.

"Australia enables the United States to have force projection through the Indian Ocean and allows quick and easy access up through to the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait," said James Curran, a professor of modern history at Sydney University.

In other words, two waterways China has made no secret of wanting to control.

Scenes from U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's meeting with Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. (Reuters)Defensible alliance?The timing of the meeting wasn’t accidental, as the two nations mark the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty, a security agreement between Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. 

That military alliance began in 1941, when the first American soldiers landed in the state of Queensland.

"A million American service personnel used Australia as a base to project north and win the Second World War in the Pacific theatre," Marles said during the recent summit.

But Curran says that as China continues to build up its economic and military power throughout the Pacific, people at the Pentagon are realizing the U.S. position in Asia is at risk of slipping.

Australia is a strategic and sizeable outpost for the U.S. in the region and a significant complement to its network of bases in its Indo-Pacific Command.

For the Australian government, the prospect of increasing Chinese naval power in its waters and maritime trade corridors feels closer than ever.

The People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party, boasts the world's largest navy and an increasingly capable long-range air force.

A 2026 report by the non-partisan think-tank the Lowy Institute found that China could strike northern Australia with ballistic missiles from its South China Sea outposts. The report's authors said this capacity would "grow substantially over the coming decade" and that China's influence might also be felt with trade disruption, the severing of undersea communication infrastructure and sophisticated cyber operations.

It's "the biggest conventional military buildup by any country in the world since the Second World War," Marles told journalists after the meeting at the Pentagon.

China remains an important trading partner for Australia, but the continued scaling up of weapons and capabilities in Australia's backyard without diplomatic efforts is concerning, Marles told a defence summit audience in 2025.

"None of that provides strategic reassurance," he said.

U.S. Marines conduct a patrol in the Australian state of Queensland in 2025 as a part of the largest bilateral military exercise between Australia and the United States. (U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Raul Sotovilla)The reality is that over the years, Australia has had to come to terms with being a long way from its traditional allies, Curran says. The British military withdrew from the region in the late 1960s, but the Americans remained.

"Now we're looking at Chinese industrial, military and economic power at such a scale that before too long, China will become the dominant power in Asia," he said. "Does Australia, therefore, have to face the region alone for the first time in its history?"

As the U.S. takes a renewed interest in Australia, the media Down Under are also paying close attention to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and Canada.

During the U.S. visit, a reporter asked Australia's deputy prime minister to justify a closer alignment with the U.S. given a recent survey highlighting a "large group of Australians who have major concerns about the reliability of the U.S. as an ally." 

The U.S.-Australia alliance is justifiable, Marles said, because of the huge threat posed by China.

"This is fundamentally important to the defence of Australia," he said.

The Australian Defence Force felt that threat in 2025, when three Chinese warships were spotted sailing less than 300 kilometres off the coast of Sydney, as reported by ABC News.

Starting next year, the alliance with the U.S. will bring a rotation of U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, via a trilateral security partnership that includes the U.K. (AUKUS). Australia hopes that will eventually lead to the acquisition of its own submarines from the U.S., which are only sold to approved allies.

Referring to the alliance with the U.S., Marles said, "we are really grateful for it."

U.S. soldiers conduct gear checks during allied nation field exercises and live-fire training in northeastern Australia in June 2026. (Army Pfc. Abraham Gomez)On home soil, the Australian government has been forced to defend these deepening U.S. ties.

The AUKUS alliance is under renewed scrutiny in the form of a public inquiry examining the cost, sustainability and public support of a deal that critics say was made in secrecy.

Reporting by the Guardian newspaper in Australia in September drew attention to dozens of facilities on Australia's mainland that the U.S. partially or fully controls. Figures were presented in Parliament to Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong by another senator, who claimed the U.S. has made Australia a forward operating base and exposed its citizens to retribution for U.S. foreign policy decisions.

Minister Wong rejected the claim, saying the U.S. military's presence in Australia is on a rotational basis, mutually determined and at Australia's invitation.

"We are of the view that the U.S. alliance contributes to Australian sovereignty. It enables us to have access to a range of capability that Australia would not have access to," Wong said.

Georgie Smyth is a CBC Network Reporter and Producer in Vancouver. She's worked for BBC World News in London and for Nine News in Australia. She's focused on local, national and international stories that affect all Canadians. Got an idea or story tip? Email: georgina.smyth@cbc.ca