Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently met with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the Quad meetings to discuss defence.
Wong told ABC News Breakfast she had made Australia’s position on exemption from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs clear.
"We enable US goods to enter our country tariff-free, and we continue to advocate for that US-Australia Free Trade Agreement to also be observed by the administration," she told ABC News Breakfast.
This comes after the latest NATO meeting, where Washington requested that Australia increase its defence budget to 3.5% of GDP.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese resisted these demands. While Australia has yet to face repercussions for these actions, Trump targeted Spain with tariff threats after it refused to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP.
Despite this, Wong said the Australian defence budget wasn’t discussed in her meeting with Rubio.
"What we talked about was our partnership and the ways in which we work together. We obviously talked about the AUKUS agreement and the benefits that it gives all three countries," she said.
The nuclear submarine AUKUS deal is still under review by the Pentagon.
Wong said she and Rubio discussed how cooperation could deepen the alliance between Australia and the U.S., “including through AUKUS”.
"We had a good discussion about the work we do together, we had a good discussion about AUKUS, and a good discussion about the positive benefits of AUKUS to [Australia, the US and the UK]," Wong said.
"We both understand the importance to both our countries and to the United Kingdom."
In their meeting, Wong also raised the postponed meeting between Albanese and Trump. Rubio “expressed his regret for the fact that the meeting had to be rescheduled” and that officials were working on arranging an alternative time.
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