AND THE LIST GOES ON, U.S. SECURITY DIALOGUES WITH

UNCLAS CANBERRA 001017 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PM AS SUBJECT: AND THE LIST GOES ON, U.S. SECURITY DIALOGUES WITH AUSTRALIA REF: SECSTATE 112900 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The United States has a wide range of ongoing security dialogues with Australia that date back decades. There are several large, formalized dialogues that take place throughout the year and a virtually endless number of smaller working groups and direct military to military talks. The main dialogues are the annual AUSMIN meetings and the Trilateral Security Dialogue with Australia and Japan. END SUMMARY AUSMIN -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) is the largest of security dialogue between Australia and the United States. It is formalized under the 1951 ANZUS treaty and takes place annually except for occasional election years when the talks are delayed. AUSMIN is held at the cabinet level and is often attended by the Secretary of State, Defense, or both. Feeding into AUSMIN are three sub-meetings chaired at the undersecretary level. These include MilReps military to military talks, the AUSMIN Defense Acquisition Committee, and informally the bilateral Pol-Mil Talks, each of which takes place more or less annually. The next AUSMIN meeting will take place in Sydney in mid-January. Trilateral Security Dialogue -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The United States also regularly engages in a series of trilateral talks with Australia and Japan which are collectively called the Trilateral Security Dialogue (TSD). The TSD is composed of 7 sub meetings that cover a specific topic. Pacific Issues, South East Asian Issues, Missile Defense and Humanitarian Assistance are all covered during one of the annual sub-meetings. There is also an annual meeting of senior officials from the three countries and last April the parties agreed in principal to an annual leaders' meeting, although this has yet to be scheduled. The annual Security and Defense Cooperation Forum (SDCF) grew out of the TSD, but has now been meeting separately from it. The TSD was initially more ad hoc in nature, but last April the three parties agreed to terms of reference to formalize the talks. TSD talks take place with some regularity throughout the year. A Broad Range of Other Meetings -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The Australian and U.S. military work very closely together and have a broad range of security dialogues that stretch from the strategic to the operational level. The highest level talks are the MilReps, which as mentioned above feed into AUSMIN and are held between the Australian Chief of Defence Forces and the Commander of PACOM. In addition to the military talks that take place under AUSMIN and the TSD, there are also annual talks between the Deputy Service Chiefs of Service of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and their Australian counterparts. Other dialogues focus exclusively on strategy, Pacific defense issues, and a variety of other regions and topics. The U.S. and Australia are also both party to a number of multilateral defense talks. ¶5. (SBU) In addition to the military meetings, there are also a variety of civilian dialogues on security related issues. The Policy Planning Staff for the State Department and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also meet on an annual basis. There are also informal meetings and talks between many U.S. agencies and their Australian counterparts, although most of these talks are not codified under any agreement. ¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: The alliance between Australia and the United States has been extremely productive and the robust QUnited States has been extremely productive and the robust exchange of ideas and information is one of its defining features. Australian forces in Afghanistan have been praised for their interoperability with the United States and this would be impossible without the exchange of ideas fostered by these security dialogues. The exchanges in most of the meetings mentioned above are meaningful and neither side is afraid of a frank discussion of tough issues. END COMMENT. CLUNE