AUKUS is ‘critical’ for Australia’s ‘deterrence framework’ in the Indo-Pacific

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham explains the AUKUS partnership is “critical” in creating an “effective deterrence framework” for Australia in the Indo-Pacific region. “The last thing any of us want to see is the type of conflict that Ukraine has faced at the hands of Russia … to come into our own region,” Mr Birmingham told Sky News Australia. “Ensuring that we have an effective deterrence framework is so very critical there, and ensuring that an effective deterrence framework is one that we are effectively collaborating and contributing to.” “That’s where the AUKUS is so critical and where it is essential that the Albanese government ensure that across those new appointments in the Trump administration and with President Trump himself, they understand that no other country is stepping forward as US ally like Australia.