China has told us what it wants: to be the dominant global power by 2049. The path to that future starts where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet.
Our bipartisan, bicameral delegation just returned from 10 days of deep and honest dialogue with our partners in Australia and the Pacific Island Countries. We celebrated the 80th anniversary of victory in the Pacific in World War II and commemorated 50 years of bilateral relations with Papua New Guinea. Across the Pacific, the signs of Chinese economic coercion and military intimidation are everywhere.
However we also saw a collection of allies and partners making strides toward our vision for a shared future—one that is open, prosperous, free, and secure from Chinese aggression.
At a moment when Washington is asking more from our allies, our visit uncovered just how much they’re doing. Our allies and partners are providing training, troops, access, and materiel support—the same factors that led to victory in World War II and will be critical as we seek to shore up deterrence for the 21st century. These countries, including the four we visited—Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and the Marshall Islands—are not American protectorates, passively accepting our support. Rather, they’re sources of strength that help us project power well beyond our own shores, and protect our shared security, prosperity, and way of life.
Our visit showed us that to deter and, if necessary, fight and win the next war in the Pacific, we need to remember the lessons from the last one. The first is that geography matters. Americans and Australians alike once believed that we were untouchable thanks to our vast oceans. We learned our lesson after the same Japanese carriers attacked Pearl Harbor and, two months later, mounted the largest single attack in Australia’s history. Recall that just 12 days after Pearl Harbor, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower directed the establishment of an American military base in Australia, understanding how critical this location was to preserving the security of the United States. To ignore what Eisenhower knew then will come at our own peril.
The second lesson is that military might requires industrial might. We won the Second World War because we recognized the urgency of the moment. We leveraged the patriotism, ingenuity, and sheer capacity of the U.S. economy to build nearly 300,000 aircraft, almost 200,000 artillery units, and millions of tanks and trucks. We produced more planes in 1944 than Japan did through the entirety of the war. While the U.S. built 17 aircraft carriers, Japan built six.
Today, we face an even more formidable adversary—one whose production capacity exceeds ours by an order of magnitude. But we need not fight alone, and we need not produce alone. This is why, in 2021, the U.S. launched one of the most ambitious defense projects in history: the AUKUS partnership. Our delegation visited the Osborne shipyard in Adelaide and saw the progress we’re making. No current weapon or platform in the U.S. arsenal is as important to deterring Chinese aggression as nuclear-powered submarines on patrol in the Pacific. Australia has stepped up to the tune of $3 billion for this project alone, and it’s no wonder AUKUS enjoys enormous bipartisan support across the U.S. Congress and the American people.
The third lesson is that we have no choice but to maintain our technological edge. Here too, Australia is delivering. On our visit, we discussed progress through our partnerships in frontier technologies like quantum computing and hypersonics. Australia is ramping up production of critical munitions to meet a key logistics vulnerability and provide additional capacity. At a tour of a brand-new production facility outside Sydney building cutting edge undersea autonomous vehicles, we saw the way Australia is pioneering a new model for defense innovation, working with military, civil service, and disruptive private sector partners.
Australia has even more to offer the U.S. as a strategic partner, from a wide range of critical minerals and rare earths to advanced research in key technologies from quantum computing to hypersonic missiles. Whether it is sharing valuable intelligence as a trusted partner, hosting U.S. troops for substantial training exercises or manufacturing advanced munitions with American companies, Australia has proven its strategic value to our nation over and over and will continue to do so in the future.
The fourth lesson is that the enemy gets a vote. China is working to turn countries in this critical region, such as the Solomon Islands, into vassal states—sending in police forces, investing billions in debt-trap diplomacy, and cultivating corrupt officials in the hope that in the event of a contingency, China can count on the Pacific Island Countries.
On our visit, we saw a region yearning for American engagement, and one where just a little can go a long way. Australia is playing an indispensable role in the region, opening embassies in every island nation, establishing the Pacific Police Force as an alternative to China, and supporting the economic development of these critical partners.
We must ensure the continuation of PEPFAR, America’s flagship global HIV and AIDS relief program. And we must continue to provide critical disaster assistance for this hurricane-prone region, assist countries in building the infrastructure (like ports) they need to grow their economies and serve as markets for American businesses, and ratify the important Pacific Tuna Treaty to help our Pacific partners push back on Chinese pirate fishing.
Our delegation included members of the Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees, and we met with a wide range of senior Australian leaders including the Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, and Director of National Intelligence.
What we heard in every meeting is that Australia is more committed than ever to investing in our joint security based on our shared values. It was clear that our allies in the region are ready to stand with us at this pivotal moment in modern history, if only we embrace their partnership. The tensions in our partnership caused by tariffs and the Pentagon’s AUKUS review need to be put to rest.
We need to clearly and unambiguously reinforce our commitment to our partners, in word and in deed. Our future may well depend on it.
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