US Officials See Stronger Ties After Trip to Indo-Pacific

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US Officials See Stronger Ties After Trip to Indo-Pacific

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's ninth trip to the Indo-Pacific aims to improve ties with Papua New Guinea and secure more ambitious plans for defense cooperation with Australia

www.voanews.com

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA —
U.S. officials are leaving Australia feeling emboldened following a nearly weeklong trip that also featured a visit to Papua New Guinea.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's ninth trip to the Indo-Pacific aimed to improve intensifying ties with Papua New Guinea by strengthening the government's defense capabilities, and secure more ambitious plans for defense cooperation with Australia.

Speaking on the sidelines of multiple meetings with Australian defense officials, U.S. officials said the work, especially discussions in Brisbane for the 33rd annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations, paid off.

The 33rd annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations.

Those initiatives include infrastructure improvements to a series of air bases across northern Australia, increased deployments of U.S. forces and capabilities to Australia on a rotational basis, and plans to have Australia start manufacturing precision guided missiles and ammunition, the types of which have been in high demand in Ukraine.

Beyond those plans, however, U.S. and Australian officials have emphasized the closeness of the alliance. U.S. officials have repeatedly referred to it as "unbreakable," while Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the U.S. Australia's "vital ally."

The U.S. "is our closest global partner, our closest strategic partner," Wong said following Saturday's AUSMIN consultations, adding the relationship is now "about operationalizing our alliance to ensure peace, stability" in the Indo-Pacific region.

Perhaps it's not necessarily "big news" or any kind of surprise revelation, but when I tried to search for it, there weren't that many newslinks coming up at all - just the VOA link and quite a few official statements from Department of Defense sources. Couldn't find anything on any major US media.

The first link I came across was this one I found in another forum: Australia’s imperial bedtime stories | Red Flag

The U.S. reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands and will be opening embassies in Vanuatu and Kiribati. There were also discussions with Papua New Guinea to increase US military access to bases in that country. The US just opened a new embassy in Tonga, which is also participating in the joint US-Australian military exercises.

Obviously, the West's concern here is in shoring up defenses and alliances in the Pacific region, as if they're preparing for some kind of showdown. Just in case China kicks off against us or something like that. It's not exactly a Pacific version of NATO, but it seems that it may be moving in that direction.

I just find it interesting that none of the major news outlets deemed this worthy or important enough.

@lewisnotmiller @SomeRandom