United States | Meeting With Australia

[Odinson]

[TR][TD]

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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA​

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ENCRYPTED MESSAGE​

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TO: Kevin Rudd, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Commonwealth of Australia( Owen )​

FROM: Jade Wolfe, United States Ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia

Foreign Minister Rudd,

I would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible as I have received further instruction from the Department of State in regard to American-Australian relations. I hope to discuss with you the pending LPL request that your government has with American Defense Sales, the establishment of American military facilities in Australia, and a formal military and political treaty between the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Australia. I hope to hear back from you soon, and I hope that you are enjoying the start to your week.

Best Regards,

Jade Wolfe
United States Ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia
​

[/TD][/TR][/TD][/TR]

 

[Owen]

​

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS​

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: SECRET (Encrypted)​

16 September 2000​

Dear Ms. Wolfe, As I am currently on business in Korea I cannot attend to you at this time, however due to the nature of your requests being predominantly regarding defence, the Minister for Defence, Senator John Faulkner, will be available in Canberra to meet with you. Unfortunately the Prime Minister is currently residing in Sydney whilst the Olympics are on and attending official events there. I will let John know he should be expecting you. He has an office in Parliament House, but he predominantly works in the Russell Offices down the road, the Australian equivalent of the Pentagon. There you will be able to meet with high-ranking military officials as well. Kind Regards, Kevin Rudd, MP.

Parliament House, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7700​

Protective Marking:	Business Impact Level:	Compromise of Information Confidentiality:	Required to be Encrypted:
UNOFFICIAL	No Business Impact	No damage. This information does not form part of official duty.
OFFICIAL	Low Business Impact	No or insignificant damage. This is the majority of routine information.
OFFICIAL: Sensitive	Low to Medium Business Impact	Limited damage to an individual, organisation or government generally if compromised.
PROTECTED	High Business Impact	Damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
SECRET	Extreme Business Impact	Serious damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
TOP SECRET	Catastrophic Business Impact	Exceptionally grave damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

Private​

Ambassador Wolfe would set up a time with Defense Minister John Faulkner to meet at the Russel Offices in Canberra. She would travel with a member of her staff and two Diplomatic Security Service agents via a private car. Once they arrived she and her staffer would wait to be escorted inside so that they could meet Senator Faulkner and begin to discuss the diplomatic topics that she planned to go over. It was likely that the Australian government was very busy with managing the Olympics, as well as security, and also holding up their public image to the world, so she was thankful that any cabinet-level minister had time to see her on short notice.

Owen

 

[Owen]

The Senator would come down from his office to the front where Jade was.

"Ms. Wolfe, pleasure to meet you." He would shake her hands.

"Come outside with me for a tick."

He would escort her outside of the building onto the main courtyard, the Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey Square. They would be escorted by two Military Police officers.

"This is named after the only person to attain the rank of Field Marshal in the Australian Army, Thomas Blamey who commanded a lot of our forces during the Second World War, sort of equivalent to your General of the Armies."

They would turn around to a big towering structure which looks similar to the Washington Monument. On top of it was a bald eagle.

​

On the bottom it would read:

"In grateful remembrance
of the vital help given by the
United States of America during
the war in the Pacific 1941-1945.
Unveiled by
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
16 February 1954"
​

"This is the Australian-American Memorial. It stands right here, proudly between the two main office buildings of the Australian Pentagon. This is how committed we are to this relationship, Jade. It faces straight down Kings Avenue here straight down to our home of democracy, Parliament House. Everything in Canberra is aligned and symmetrical, I'm sure you've noticed that having lived here for a while now. Let's head back in."

He would escort her back inside and up to his office.

"Please take a seat. Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee? Water?"

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

Private​

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Minister Faulkner. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice," she said politely. While she didn't expect that they would be going outside she happily joined the minister for a walk.

"My father was a... is a Marine. He fought at Guadalcanal. He told me that he met some Australians there," she said while they were outside, observing the memorial. Jade read the inscription and stood there with Minister Faulkner.

"Some water would be wonderful, Minister Faulkner. Thank you," she said.

Owen

 

[Owen]

"We maintain a very close relationship with the Solomon Islands and from all the discussions I've had with my counterpart there they've said they are eternally grateful for the assistance rendered by the United States and Australia during the Guadalcanal campaign. We like to see ourselves as the Guardians of the Pacific and they can always be rest assured that our nations, together with New Zealand, will be there for them."

An Assistant would bring Jade some water.

"I must say I am quite impressed by the performance of Team USA at the Olympics a couple of hours down the road. 11 gold medals is an impressive feet. This is followed by your neighbours in Mexico. Unfortunately it seems your northern neighbours aren't doing as well..."

Odinson

 

[Owen]

Odinson

 

[Owen]

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[Odinson]

"I'm sure the Canadians still have a few tricks up there sleave. They're worthy opponents," Jade said with a small smile.

"I'm sure you are wondering what my government has asked me to offer... The White House is interested in establishing a much closer military relationship between the United States and Australia. At this time, we are interested in establishing five military facilities in Australia. Three of the facilities will be, relatively, small while the latter two will be large bases that large military operations can be coordinated from:
1. Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt,
2. A Navy refueling station in northeastern Queensland,
3. A Navy refueling station in western Western Australia,
4. A Navy base along the coast of the Northern Territory (with a Naval Air Station nearby)
5. A Marine Corps base along the coast of the Northern Territory (with a Marine Corps air station nearby).

"The purpose of these facilities would be three-fold: to facilitate a direct military working relationship between the United States and Australia, to help provide for the greater defense of Australia, and to increase the power projection of the United States so that we can better respond to global crises. What do you think of this proposal, Minister Faulkner? While we believe that this is less of a 'give and take' and more of an opportunity for us to work together to make Australia and the world safer, we would also be willing to approve your order in American Defense Sales and give your government an allied discount, and also to establish some form of a mutual defense treaty between the United States and Australia."

Owen

 

[Owen]

"I believe the Prime Minister has already outlined that we're not onboard with the idea of stand alone U.S. military bases. It's a political unpopular move to allow that to happen. Rather they would have to be joint facilities or a sharing agreement. We're willing to allow the U.S. military full access to all current Australian Defence Force bases for temporary rotations and visits and we can codify that into our mutual defense treaty. As for these five facilities you've outlined. We already have Naval Communications Station Harold E. Holt running as a standalone Royal Australian Navy facility. We would be willing to expand it to a joint facility with the U.S. navy and allow you to station personnel there. No problems there. As for these refueling stations I don't see any point establishing standalone U.S. Navy bases in those places for refuelling purposes, the U.S. Navy will have full access to our fuel storages at HMAS Cairns in Cairns and HMAS Magnetic in Townsville for northeastern Queensland and HMAS Stirling near Perth and HMAS Advance in Dampier for Western Australia. This would be in addition to having access to all Royal Australian Navy depots and fuel storages, as well as Air Force stores. Though the stores are limited and we would be interested in the United States establishing a network of war reserve stocks or strategic petroleum reserves in Australia to expand those stocks of fuel, etc that could be used by both the United States and Australia when needed but in particularly during wartime. We would also be open to the U.S. investing money in certain facilities they wish to expand fuel storage at and we are ourselves looking at establishing a greater network of our own fuel storage.

As for these major Northern Territory facilities. We can certainly make joint facilities there with the United States. HMAS Melville in Darwin is our only navy base in the Territory and that can become a joint Australian-U.S. Navy base but it is a small base, it only hosts patrol boats. We would need the U.S. to invest significant money to expand that facility. Robertson Barracks in Darwin is our main Army base in the Northern Territory, it has extensive facilities and we can also see that expanded to become a joint facility with the Marine Corps. If you're only looking for facilities near the coast, RAAF Base Darwin would be the only air base and its close to Robertson and Melville. We also have RAAF Base Tindal but that is further inland and hosts RAAF fighter jet units. At the moment we don't have many permanently based units there but we rotate regularly through it, if its to become a Navy and Marine Corps air station we would also need to see its facilities expanded. A trifecta of RAAF Darwin, Melville and Robertson joint bases would give the U.S. Military proximity to each other, would enable them to work with the Australian Defence Force and would give service personnel a good lifestyle in the city of Darwin rather than being out in the bush somewhere. Also anywhere else along the coast of the Northern Territory is tricky because you start impeding on Kakadu National Park and on Arnhem Land which is Aboriginal lands, not to mention all the crocodiles. It just makes sense to centre everything around Darwin where the infrastructure is already there. If this sounds like a good plan to you we can start working on the logistics of it and getting it codified in writing and I'll be in contact with the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and the Lord Mayor of Darwin so that the Darwin community can be prepared for this change."

Odinson

 

[Owen]

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

"Thank you for your directness, and your honesty. The offer to utilize all Australian military facilities is extremely generous of your government and shows just how much trust you are already willing to extend to us, not to mention the joint-use of other facilities. I am aware that the Pentagon is exceptionally busy planning a number of training operations and deployments around the world, so progress on these deployments to Australia will not be immediate. But, I would be happy to codify this through a treaty. I understand that you have told me already that military instillations are unpopular, but there is one more that I was instructed to ask about. The Navy would like to establish a small, classified, Naval Station in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The purpose of the station would be for refueling and the permanent deployment of a limited number of naval vessels. The Navy specifically wanted this facility as a forward operating base in the event that any kind of major conflict or event were to happen in the Indian Ocean or Eastern Africa... Your thoughts?" she asked.

Owen

 

[Owen]

"There would be a logistical challenge to a naval base at Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the waters around it are very shallow, too shallow for large vessels, it is essentially an atoll. We are also moving to establish Marine Parks at both Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. Not to mention it is an existing National Park, including the seas 1.5km around it. Our desire to protect the precious environment in these two islands probably will mean that having large naval vessels visiting them would be unacceptable. However, HMAS Advance and HMAS Stirling on the west coast of Australia are always available and the RAAF base at Cocos (Keeling) Islands is also available for air assets. We may look into establising a naval base on Christmas Island but it will take months of environment impact assessments. This is one of the reasons we would like you to use existing ADF facilities to avoid issues such as with the environment. Not to mention secrecy may be a bit hard on those very small islands which are both inhabited.

On other matters, as you may be aware we put an order in with ADS. We have our aircraft carrier now commissioned as HMAS Australia, however it still doesn't have an air fleet assigned to it and so we would like to see this order streamlined. This will enable Australia to have forward power projection capabilities, lessons we are learning from the Middle East War. As you may remember we struggled to forward establish air power because Diego Garcia was too far and we were restricted to operating in Saudi Arabia or else we were putting our air forces at risk of attack in Israel or Cyprus. An aircraft carrier solves a lot of our issues. An aircraft carrier with aircraft would be even better...." He would chuckle.

"Our economy is doing quite well, 4th largest in the world and so building defence capabilities is on the agenda and the United States would be key to that."

Odinson

 

[Owen]

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

"I'll be sure to pass on your responses to those requests to the Defense Department. All requests to American Defense Sales are now being forwarded to the State Department after being evaluated by the Pentagon, so I'm the perfect person to talk to. I think that you will be pleased to hear that even though many other countries have been denied requests to purchase the Super Hornet, my sources in the Pentagon and the Vice President's office say that the Senate would likely be to approve the sale, provided that Australia pays full price and agrees to not resell any of the products. However, the same cannot be said for the Growler - we would be willing to sell the Prowler, though. Because these kinds of arms-trade deals are now almost exclusively going through Congress, we will need to have a treaty signed and ratified. But I do have one here for your to review," she said.

​

American-Australian Arms Agreement of 2001 ​

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CONTEXT​

The American-Australian Arms Trade Agreement of 2000 is between the nations of the United States of America (also referred to as the United States or the American Government) and the Commonwealth of Australia (also referred to as Australia or the Australian Government). This treaty is meant to foster a spirit of mutual cooperation between the American and Australian governments, as well as laying the foundation for a prosperous relationship between the Untied States and Australia. Contained within this treaty is an agreement to exchange products and money.

ARTICLE 1
ARMS EXCHANGE​

1.1 The United States shall authorize Australia to build the following products (with quantities shown as i.e. x7): x24 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet; x4 E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.
a. The United States is required to permit the Australian Government to construct each item listed in Section 1.1, but only in the quantity and model that is listed.
b. The Commonwealth of Australia must pay a grand total of: $1,909,345,896 before it will be permitted to construct any of these items.
c. The Australian Government will not sell, lease, lend, abandon, surrender, or give away any equipment that they purchase from the United States to any nation/entity/individual other than the United States, nor will they allow any of the aforementioned groups to train with the items listed in Section 1.1. or study them. However, Australia may at any time scrap said equipment.
d. The United States will allow Australia to maintain the equipment they purchase without charge.

ARTICLE 2
COOPERATION​

2.1 The United States of America recognizes the Commonwealth of Australia as a sovereign nation with the only claim to its territory. The Commonwealth of Australia recognizes the United States of America as a sovereign nation with the only claim to its territory.
a. If the United States were to enter into a war with a country that Australia is not in a Mutual Defense Pact with, the Australian Government will share any and all intelligence it finds necessary in order to support the American war effort.
b. If Australia were to enter into war with a country that the United States is not in a Mutual Defense Pact with, America will share any and all intelligence it finds necessary in order to support the Australian war effort.
2.2 The United States of America and The Commonwealth of Australia will both ratify this treaty through their respective legislative processes.

ARTICLE 3
TERMINATION OF AGREEMENT​

3.1 The United States of America or the Commonwealth of Australia may terminate this treaty after a [6] month notice has been issued. To terminate this agreement, a secure message that clearly states that this agreement is being terminated must be sent through the proper channels from the head of state/government of either party to the head of state/government of the other party. If both nations wish to terminate this agreement, no [6] month notice is needed. For a termination to be complete, the measures that follow must be taken.
a. If Australia terminates this agreement, the Australian Government must scrap all American vehicles/vessels/weapons/equipment that they procured from the United States under this treaty.
b. The Commonwealth of Australia is still under the requirement to not resell, transfer, or in any other form allow another country to utilize procured equipment from the United States under this treaty and shall not, even in the event of the termination of this agreement, breach the terms over re-selling or transferring in any form the procured equipment from the United States.
3.2 If Australia violates this agreement by either violating Section 1.1.c or Article 3.1.i then it will incur a $3,000,000,000 penalty that they must pay to the United States for each unit they allowed another nation/entity to obtain, and the United States is no longer held to abide by Article 1 or Article 2 of this agreement.


Signed for the United States of America,

XXX
President of the United States of America


Signed for the Commonwealth of Australia,

XXX
Prime Minister of The Commonwealth of Australia

Owen

 

[Owen]

"What's the issue with the Growler? The Prowler is over 30 years now. We need cutting edge electronic warfare technology if we're going to keep an edge over nations like China. The Growler is simply the electronic warfare version of the Super Hornet, so selling us one and not the other doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The point of us having a mixed fleet of Super Hornets and Growlers is that we will be able to streamline maintenance by having the same air frame and we can train pilots to be cross-compatible on both platforms. I believe that America withholding important technology from their closest allies brings more harm than good to the United States. If we cannot defend ourselves, if we cannot be the best possible partners we can be in any conflict then that's an operational hindrance to the United States. There's a lot of what I describe as "arms egos" in the world at this present time, something which wasn't really prevalant 20... 30 years ago, it just doesn't make sense, I'm not asking you to sell them to Iran.

I don't believe Article 2 needs to be in this agreement, that article can form the basis of a Mutual Defence Pact between our nations. This is simply an arms agreement."

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

"I'm just the messenger, Minister Faulkner. The Growler is a cutting-edge aircraft with hundreds of components and technologies within it that the United States spent billions of dollars to develop - it is not something that the Department of Defense or the Senate will allow to be sold as a good-will gesture. Perhaps if you would have been more open to any of our other requests and we had already established a formal alliance it would be remotely possible, but under the current conditions I do not see there being much support in Congress. Furthermore, Article 2 would exist to build trust between our two governments as we make such a significant exchange and the United States enables Australia to make massive power projections... but if you would rather that wait for a separate agreement, then we can remove that from the treaty," she said, taking down a few notes.

Owen

 

[Owen]

"Let's put the arms sale on the back burner for now. Let's focus on establishing a mutual defence agreement. Now I believe the Prime Minister has already given you a draft copy of the ANZUS Treaty which allows for the inclusion of New Zealand in the future should their government establish themselves as a productive ally of both of our nations. Furthermore we could change New Zealand to the United Kingdom and it would become the AUKUS Treaty, as we are in talks to also establish an agreement with the United Kingdom. However the point of the treaty was to focus on the defence of the Pacific, which obviously New Zealand is better placed than the United Kingdom to do.

And also my congratulations to the re-election of President Gore. I'm sure your position as Ambassador is secure then." He would chuckle.

"What was the makeup of Congress in the end? Any staunch allies of Australia?"

Odinson