Australia will lift defence spending to 3.0 per cent of GDP by 2033 as armed conflicts flare worldwide, the government said Thursday.
The new commitment follows pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for Canberra to boost military expenditure as a share of total annual economic output.
“International norms that once constrained the use of force and military coercion continue to erode,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said in a prepared speech seen by AFP.
“More countries are engaged in conflict today than at any time since the end of the Second World War, and this is occurring across every region of the world.”
Australia’s defence spending had previously been forecast to rise to 2.3 per cent of GDP by 2033.
The new target means Australia will spend an additional Aus$53 billion ($38 billion) over the next 10 years when compared to its 2024 defence strategy, Department of Defence officials said.
In the shorter term, spending would climb by an extra Aus$14 billion over four years.
To reach the 3.0 per cent target, however, Australia has also changed how it calculates the defence budget to match a NATO definition that also includes factors such as military pensions.
Military projects include speeding up the construction of a major shipbuilding yard in Western Australia to service nuclear-powered submarines under a so-called AUKUS defence deal with the United States and Britain.
Under the AUKUS agreement, the United States and Britan will transfer nuclear-powered submarine capability to Australia’s navy.
