Australia plans to enter top ten defence export countries

Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull attends a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. (AP)

The Australian government announced on Monday a new strategy to boost Australia into the ranks of the top 10 defense industry exporting countries within a decade.

The government will create a 3.8 billion Australian dollar (USD 3.1 billion) fund to lend to exporters that banks are reluctant to finance, Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said. Australia is the 20th largest defense exporter with most of its exports including the Bushmaster armored vehicle and the Nulka missile decoy sold to the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

The aim of boosting Australia into the top 10 defence exporters was “very realistic,” Pyne said “Australia has a very sophisticated defence industry, but we’ve never had a government until this one that’s been determined to drive that into exports in order to grow jobs and the economy,” Pyne told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Trade Minister Steve Ciobo said his government was not concerned that exported arms could be turned against Australia. “This isn’t about providing weapons or arms to rogue regimes or anything like that,” Ciobo told Nine Network television. “We’ve got strict controls and those controls make sure we only supply defense assets in the future to like-minded countries that have a strong human rights record and have protections in place.”

“We know that when countries are strong and others know that they’re strong, then the likelihood of there being conflict is, of course, reduced,” Ciobo added.

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