(Canberra Bloomberg) Australia's Minister of Defense Mars said that for Australia, the pressure on economic coercion and rules -based international order is a greater threat than the enemy's invasion.
Mars Sunday (April 30) said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "The threat we face is not an imminent invasion, but that we are more likely to suffer from economic coercion and coercion from opponents, and this coercion occursThe possibility will be significantly improved. "
He pointed out that now Australia is more dependent on trade 30 years ago, and almost all liquid fuels are imported from overseas.He also mentioned that the geopolitical pressures facing Australia include the tension between the Russian and Ukraine War and the South China Sea.
The Australian government's previous national defense strategic assessment report stated that Australia is now facing a very different strategic environment. The United States is no longer a single leader in the Indo -Pacific region, and China has undergone the most ambitious military construction since World War II.Essence
TheReport recommends a series of defense reforms, including focusing on the development of long -range precision strike capabilities and promoting the domestic defense manufacturing industry to better cope with security challenges.In the interview, Mars said: "The goal we seeks now is to build a national defense army that can projected effective forces within the scope of all potentially commensurate reactions."
He said that Australia's current focus is to purchase more Himars high -mobility multi -tube rocket systems and expand local production capacity.He also said that Australia would consider buying Tomahawk missiles from the United States.