Australia to boost defence spending by £151bn as PM warns of ‘more dangerous’ world after coronavirus pandemic

Sharp funding increase comes amid deteriorating relationship with China

Australia has announced A$270bn (£151.2bn) in additional defence spending over the next decade as its prime minister warned of a dangerous new world following the coronavirus pandemic.

The sharp funding boost will see the country invest in more lethal and long-range capabilities to hold enemies further from its shores, including longer-range strike weapons and offensive cyber capabilities.

Prime minister Scott Morrison said Australia had not seen such economic and strategic uncertainty in its region since the Second World War, with tensions over territorial claims rising between India and China and in the South China Sea.

“The simple truth is this: even as we stare down the Covid pandemic at home, we need to also prepare for a post-Covid world that is poorer, that is more dangerous and that is more disorderly,” Mr Morrison said.

He said the spending would come alongside a renewed focus on Australia’s immediate region, although the country’s military would be open to joining US-led coalitions in campaigns which are in the national interest.

“The risk of miscalculation and even conflict is heightened,” Mr Morrison said.

“Regional military modernisation is at an unprecedented rate.”

He added: “Relations between China and the United States are fractious at best as they compete for political, economic and technological supremacy.”

The move followed deteriorating relations between Australia and China, which are now seen to be at their worst level in decades.

Last month, Mr Morrison said Australia’s government and institutions were being targeted by a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor”, with anonymous government sources telling Reuters that China was considered to be the chief suspect.

However, Beijing has denied it was behind the attacks

“China is the unspoken elephant in the room,” Sam Roggeveen, director of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute’s International Security Programme, said in response to the defence spending boost.

“While it’s absolutely right that we focus on our region, buying long-range missiles – particularly ones for land targets – could invite a response from Beijing.”

Mr Morrison said Australia would buy 200 long-range anti-ship missiles from the US Navy for A$800 million and would consider developing hypersonic missiles.

Rory Medcalf, head of the Australian National University’s National Security College, said the announcement showed the country was “getting serious about deterrence and the prospect of armed conflict in the Indo-Pacific region”.

“It was only a matter of time before the Australian government made a choice about the kind of defence force that we’re going to have in the 21st century with the rapid deterioration in the strategic environment in recent years,” Mr Medcalf said.

“The government has accepted that the Australian military needs to be able to attempt to deter armed conflict through its capabilities and to be able to fight in our region if we have to.”

The country’s relationship with China, its most important trading partner, has also been strained by Australian calls for an independent investigation of the coronavirus pandemic.

Additional reporting by agencies