Australian PM flags military build-up as Asian powers rise

SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flagged an increase in defence spending Wednesday as he warned the country's military must start preparing for an arms build-up in Asia and the Pacific.

Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat elected as leader last November, said Australia was "in a region where there is an explosion in defence expenditure."

"There is an arms build-up across the Asia-Pacific region and Australia therefore must look at the long-term future at the same time as advancing our diplomacy," he told reporters in the northern city of Townsville.

"Therefore Australia must be prepared through its diplomacy, its foreign policy and its defence policy."

Rudd said a major priority would be to ensure the nation's naval capabilities as rising powers such as China and India grew more prosperous and influential.

"We are looking at a time in the Asia-Pacific region and world history where, for the first time in several hundred years, we are going to have powers other than Anglo-Saxon powers who will be the dominant players in the world."

"For the government, a major priority is to ensure we have enough naval capabilities in the future, enough naval assets, enough naval performance, and therefore enough funding put aside to invest in that, long term," he added.

In a speech to veterans late Tuesday, Rudd said increased militarisation was occurring in the rapidly changing Asia Pacific -- a region he said was "still characterised by a number of unresolved flash points arising from unsettled territorial disputes" and would become more contested.

"As nations grow and become more affluent, they also update their military forces," he said. "We see a substantial arms build-up over time."

He said that unless Australia began to respond to this, "we run the risk of competition and tension overriding cooperation".

In May, the government said Australia's defence budget would increase by 3.0 percent to around 22.6 billion dollars (18.2 billion US) and committed itself to extending real growth in defence spending by 3.0 percent a year until 2018.