Australian Defence Force - Foreign Defence Relations

Foreign Defence Relations

The Australian Defence Force cooperates with militaries around the world. Australia's formal military agreements include the ANZUS Alliance with the United States of America, the Closer Defence Program with New Zealand and the Five Power Defence Arrangements with Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Australia is currently developing closer security ties with Japan. ADF activities under these agreements include participating in joint planning, intelligence sharing, personnel exchanges, equipment standardisation programs and joint exercises. Australia is also a member of the UKUSA signals intelligence gathering agreement.

New Zealand, Singapore and the United States maintain military units in Australia. The New Zealand and Singaporean forces are limited to small training units at ADF bases, with the New Zealand contingent comprising nine Army personnel involved in air navigation training. Two Republic of Singapore Air Force pilot training squadrons are based in Australia; 126 Squadron at the Oakey Army Aviation Centre and 130 Squadron at RAAF Base Pearce. The Singapore Army also uses the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area in Queensland for annual large-scale exercises.

Two United States intelligence and communications facilities are located in Australia; the Pine Gap satellite tracking station near Alice Springs and Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt near Exmouth, Western Australia. Pine Gap is jointly operated by Australian and United States personnel and Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt has been an exclusively Australian-operated facility since 1999. In early 2007 the Australian Government approved the construction of a new unmanned US communications installation at the Defence Signals Directorate Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station facility near Geraldton, Western Australia. The United States Military also frequently uses Australian exercise areas and these facilities have been upgraded to support joint Australian-United States training. In addition to these facilities, between 200 and 300 US Military personnel are posted to Australia to liaise with the ADF and in November 2011 the Australian and American Governments announced plans to rotate United States Marine Corps and United States Air Force units through bases in the Northern Territory for training purposes.

The ADF provides assistance to militaries in Australia's region through the Defence Cooperation Program. Under this program the ADF provides assistance with training, infrastructure, equipment and logistics and participates in joint exercises with countries in South East Asia and Oceania. The Pacific Patrol Boat Program is the largest Defence Cooperation Program activity and supports 22 Pacific class patrol boats operated by twelve South Pacific countries. Other important activities include supporting the development of the Timor Leste Defence Force and Papua New Guinea Defence Force and supplying watercraft to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Australia also directly contributes to the defence of Pacific countries by periodically deploying warships and aircraft to patrol their territorial waters; this includes an annual deployment of RAAF AP-3 Orions to the region as part of a multi-national maritime surveillance operation. Under an informal agreement Australia is responsible for the defence of Nauru.