The text of the following joint fact sheet was released by the Governments of the United States and Australia on the occasion of the 35th Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth hosted Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles on December 8 in Washington, D.C., marking 40 years of AUSMIN consultations. Building on the historic October 2025 leaders' meeting between President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Secretaries and Ministers (the "Principals") committed to a range of new initiatives to advance the safety, security, and prosperity of our two countries and the broader Indo-Pacific region.
Promoting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Recognizing the growing threats to peace in the Indo-Pacific, the Principals committed to new joint efforts to promote regional stability and security. The Principals also resolved to build resilience to economic coercion and to jointly promote growth in the Indo-Pacific region underpinned by a free and fair economic order. The two countries will advance these efforts with regional partners, including through the Quad Leaders' Summit and Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
- Australia and the United States are innovating how we deliver assistance and are enhancing coordination on strategic critical infrastructure investments in Southeast Asia and the Pacific:
- Australia committed to working with the United States, the Philippines, and Japan to advance the development of the Luzon Economic Corridor;
- Australia and the United States are partnering with Papua New Guinea (PNG) on digital infrastructure, with Australia already investing in the Coral Sea Cable and Digicel Pacific, and on a blueprint for reform and investment in PNG telecommunications;
- Australia and the United States are continuing to partner with PNG on economic development in Lae, which includes Australia's work with PNG to redevelop the Lae Port, and new planned support from the United States to bolster cargo inspection and screening infrastructure and training to enhance port security, disrupt transnational criminal activity, and spur economic development;
- The United States committed to strengthening disaster management capabilities through the National Disaster Center in partnership with Australia as a demonstration of our continued commitment to PNG.
- The Principals committed to exploring further opportunities to support the development of trusted ICT networks across the Indo-Pacific and applauded the completion of the Vaka Submarine Cable to Tuvalu - a $56 million project jointly financed by the United States and Australia, in partnership with Taiwan, New Zealand, and Japan.
- The United States and Australia intend to expand trilateral cooperation with Japan on training, and sharing data on air and missile defense threats. They plan to also continue to cooperate on Maritime Cooperative Activities in the South China Sea with the Philippines and other partners.
- The United States and Australia are committed to increased cooperation to combat transnational crime, including with regional partners, and plan to establish a bilateral, interagency Working Group to Combat Online Scam Operations. The two sides also welcomed a renewed MOU between AUSTRAC and FinCEN on sharing financial intelligence to tackle serious crime.
- The United States and Australia underscored our shared commitment to cyber coordination and capacity building in Southeast Asia and the Pacific to increase the region's resilience to cyber threats. Working with Congress, the U.S. Department of State plans to invest over USD $10 million, and Australia will invest up to AUD $10 million, including funding to hold another Pacific Cyber Week.
Strengthening the U.S.-Australia Alliance: Looking forward in 2026 to the 75th anniversary of the signing of the ANZUS Treaty, the Principals reaffirmed the vital importance of the U.S.-Australia Alliance and committed to deepening cooperation through accelerating and expanding joint defense initiatives, shared investments in new capabilities, and industrial base integration.
- The Principals praised the positive trajectory of both countries' investments in defense capabilities and infrastructure as the Alliance builds out our force posture and defense industrial cooperation to respond to the demands of the Indo-Pacific strategic environment.
- In line with President Trump and Prime Minister Albanese's direction to move "full steam ahead" on AUKUS, the Principals recognized the work underway to deliver priority infrastructure works and a workforce uplift plan in support of an enhanced trilateral submarine industrial base.
- Australia will soon deliver the next one-billion-dollar payment as scheduled to be invested in expanding U.S. submarine production capacity. This brings Australia's contribution to the U.S. submarine industrial base to $2 billion so far.
- The United States and Australia advanced key priorities across an ambitious range of force posture cooperation, including:
- Committing to progress Enhanced Air Cooperation through infrastructure works at Royal Australian Air Force Bases Tindal and Darwin to support rotations of U.S. bombers, fighters, and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, and scope infrastructure works at Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley;
- Expanding Marine Rotational Force-Darwin capacity through logistics and infrastructure development, including the prepositioning of USMC MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft;
- Establishing Northern and Southern nodes within the combined logistics networks in Australia; and
- Establishing the U.S. Oversight and Support Group - Australia for the administration and coordination of U.S. force posture presence in Australia.
- The Principals re-affirmed the criticality of establishing Submarine Rotational Force-West as early as 2027, and the regular visits and maintenance of U.S. SSNs at HMAS Stirling to support Australia's sovereign-ready efforts for its conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine program.
- The Principals endorsed a two-year shared pathway for the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise:
- Pursuing co-production, co-sustainment and follow on development of Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile;
- Furthering depot-level sustainment of AIM-9X and Advanced Medium-Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM);
- Identifying cooperation on maritime strike and interceptor capabilities to be integrated into this pathway in 2026.
- The Principals welcomed the blanket Third Party Transfers authorization for Australia and reaffirmed their commitment to expanding the practical use of export control license exemptions maintained by both nations. Both sides encouraged maximizing utilization of authorized exemptions where appropriate, including those in the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (such as those sections in 126.4 and 126.7) and Australia's Defence Trade Control Act 2012 and associated regulations, for ongoing and future work related to the GWEO Shared Pathway. These actions are streamlining bilateral defense trade, supporting Alliance activities, and bolstering defense industrial bases.
Strengthening National Security through Economic Cooperation: Building on the groundbreaking Critical Minerals Framework signed by President Trump and Prime Minister Albanese, the Principals committed to expand efforts to secure supply chains of critical minerals and to explore new initiatives to further bolster economic ties.
- The Principals agreed on the importance of swift implementation of the Critical Minerals Framework. Following the announcement of joint investment with Japan in the project, they welcomed Alcoa's recent progress to move expeditiously towards gallium production in 2026 to diversify a critical supply chain for the defense sector.
- The United States and Australia agreed to deepen bilateral strategic finance cooperation, including through the establishment of an Export Finance Australia (EFA) presence in Washington, D.C.
- The Principals welcomed EFA and Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) issuing coordinated Letters of Support/Interest worth a combined total of $600 million to Tronox to support a planned expansion of the company's rare earth and minerals projects in Australia, which in turn will support a key critical minerals supply chain in the United States.
- Both countries committed to collaborating on reserve mechanisms for critical minerals and exploring opportunities for offtake arrangements, including for national security supply chains.
- Global Entry will be available to all Australian citizens on December 15, 2025, streamlining secure entry to the United States and strengthening our robust people-to-people links.
- The United States and Australia are exploring a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement (CMAA) to prevent, investigate, and disrupt customs law violations.
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