EDITORIAL: Growing US push on defence spending set to test Defence Minister Richard Marles at the NATO summit

The pressure from the United States for Australia to do more on defence spending continues to grow. Nobody should be surprised. A key theme of the Donald Trump years has been his belief that the US is being ripped off by its allies who rely on America to do the heavy lifting on defence and security. The message has got through. Earlier this month NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte set out a plan for NATO members to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence. The Trump team’s guns have more recently been turned onto Australia. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Australia to increase its military spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP — and to do so “as soon as possible”. That would take Australia’s spend far beyond the projected 2.3 per cent by 2033. But Defence Minister Richard Marles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have stuck to the line that the Government would determine its defence budget based on strategic needs rather than meeting any benchmark. Adding to the pressure, the US announced it would review AUKUS, the submarine pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the US. Yesterday it emerged that Mr Hegseth had stepped up his push again when he spoke to the US Senate Armed Services Committee. “With NATO stepping up, we now have a new standard for Allied defence spending that all of our allies around the world, including in Asia should move to,” Mr Hegseth said. It is a sure bet that the pressure will continue to ramp up ahead of next week’s NATO summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, which will convene roughly in the middle of the two week period Mr Trump has given himself to decide whether to join Israel’s strikes against Iran. Mr Marles will attend the summit. If he continues to resist the US push it might not go well for him in The Hague.