Australia will boost its annual defence spending by 80 per cent within a decade as it upgrades its armed forces partly to counteract Chinese assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.
A defence white paper published on Thursday lays out plans to increase expenditure to A$59bn (US$42bn) by 2026, compared with A$32bn this year. Almost half of a total budget of A$447bn forecast for 2016-2026 will be spent on military hardware and infrastructure over the period.
“This is a massive investment in securing the peace and prosperity of our region,” said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
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