Why Australia is Gladly Preparing for War
Australia is preparing for war in order to avoid it. Their historic new increase in defense spending and China’s dependence on them for iron ore make them an important ally. Australia’s defense funding for 2024 will be $35 billion USD, just over 2% of their GDP, and up from $20 billion in 2021. They’ve signed a new trilateral security agreement with the United States and United Kingdom that will give the Australian Navy a new weapon that only 6 other nations in the entire world have. Major upgrades are being made to their northern army, air and naval bases. But all of this was done at a major cost. China has boycotted $4 billions of dollars worth of Australian products in an attempt to coerce them into bending to their will.
Written by: Chris Cappy & Thomas Priddle
Edited by: Savvy Studios
located in the Indo-Pacific region they have become more strategically important in light of the US China security competition. Both great powers require resources from Australia. This means the democratic nation of Australia will play a crucial role if we’re headed into some kind of second cold war here.
The Australian defense forces down under will grow by 30 percent once the new plan is implemented, the country’s permanent military ranks will increase from 59,000 to nearly 80,000. But will it be too little too late? Let’s look at the revolutionary new weapon systems that Australia is choosing to invest in, why the nation is so geopolitical important and whether or not China’s attempts to coerce Australia have been successful.
Australia, a nation of relatively small population of 25 million people while being the world’s 6th largest country by size. Australia has an abundance of natural resources most important of which is their crude iron ore mines. One of the reasons for their geopolitical importance is they have the world’s largest iron ore reserves estimated to be 51 billion metric tons or 30 percent of the world’s entire supply.
This should give us a hint as to why China needed Australia so badly for the past two decades. Iron ore is essential to make steel which is necessary to build a strong industrial base. China needed this iron ore to build infrastructure projects, roads, highways, defense products and their entire belt and road project. Beijing imports 60% of their iron ore from Australia, and is heavily dependent on the commodity. Why can’t China mine their own iron ore supply domestically? China would need to develop hundreds of new mines, which would require an enormous amount of water and energy and expertise that their mining industry just doesn’t have right now.
Credit to : Task & Purpose
