Malcolm Turnbull has refused to rule out sending more troops to Afghanistan and emphasised the “very, very strong” relationship with the United States in a sign Australia could contribute to Donald Trump’s planned surge.
Responding to Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that the US would reorient the mission towards “killing terrorists” rather than nation building, the Australian prime minister promised to “work through” any request for an increased troop commitment.
At a doorstop in Tumut on Wednesday, Turnbull repeated the line of Australia’s defence ministers that Australia makes one of the most substantial contributions to the coalition effort in Afghanistan and had increased its presence already.
On the changed nature of the mission, Turnbull said that “what the president is doing is showing a resolve to ensure that the terrorists in Afghanistan are not able to regroup and once again ... threaten us from Afghanistan as they did in the past”.
On troop numbers, Turnbull said he was “not ruling anything out ... I am not going to speculate on what the additional resources we would bring to bear would be, but as to timeline I think the coalition commitment to Afghanistan would be very long term, as it has been”.
Turnbull said “I’m not ruling anything out” and observed that Trump had not yet set out what additional resources the US will commit.
Asked about the Australian defence force’s capacity, Turnbull said “it depends how much, and for how long and what other calls on the ADF’s resources are present, but again, we will work through [any request], rather than speculate”.
“We’ll be having close consultation with the US, and the outcome of those may result in additional resources being deployed to Afghanistan but I don’t want to speculate on it, we are very very staunch allies ... in the global war to defeat terrorism.”
Turnbull has been a staunch supporter of US foreign policy under Trump. In August he committed Australia to be involved in any conflict in the event North Korea attacks the US, earning a sharp rebuke from North Korea that supporting Trump would be “suicidal”.
Leaked transcript of a telephone call in January between Turnbull and Trump to discuss the two countries’ refugee swap deal revealed that, after thanking Trump for honouring the deal, the Australian prime minister promised to be there “again and again” for him.
Asked on Wednesday about whether it was wise to be “joined at the hip” with the US, Turnbull said: “The US alliance is the bedrock of our national security, we are staunch allies, strong allies, none stauncher or stronger.”
On Tuesday the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, signalled that although Labor was not minded to give a blank cheque to Trump it did support Australia’s contribution in Afghanistan and would back the government’s ultimate decision.
“Australians should know that my track record when it comes to national security and the deployment of ADF has been to work with the government of the day because our ADF expects nothing less from the government and their opposition,” he said.