Launching the Defense Strategic Review in Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government’s strategy was designed to make Australia more self reliant, more prepared and more secure. “We cannot fall back on old assumptions. We must build and strengthen our security by seeking to shape the future rather than waiting for the future to shape us,” Albanese said.
The review examined billions of dollars committed by the previous government and reassessed their value against perceived threats, including from an increasingly muscular China under leader Xi Jinping. Though the unclassified version of the report didn’t include confidential assessments of specific threats, it noted that Australia’s largest defense ally, the United States, is “no longer the unipolar leader of the Indo-Pacific”.
