Australia planning new port in northern coast for use by US Marines amid China’s growing presence in region: report

The Darwin port already includes military facilities and hosts visiting US ships, but the new port would offer large amphibious warships a more discreet and less busy base of operations, ABC reported

The plans, if confirmed, would be a sign of ‘growing competition for access to infrastructure around the Indo-Pacific from both China and the US’, an expert says

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The HMAS Perth, one of the Royal Australian Navys eight Anzac-class frigates, arrives in the Port of Darwin. File photo: AFP

Published: 5:06pm, 24 Jun 2019Updated: 11:08pm, 24 Jun 2019

Australia is planning to build a new deep water port on its northern coast able to accommodate US Marine deployments as part of efforts to counter China’s growing presence in the region, the ABC reported on Monday.

The national broadcaster quoted multiple defence and government officials as saying the facility would be about 40km from Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, which controversially leased its own port to a Chinese operator in 2015.

The Darwin port already includes military facilities and hosts visiting US ships, but the ABC said the new port would offer large amphibious warships a more discreet and less busy base of operations.

US Marine units of more than 2,000 troops regularly rotate through Darwin as part of the close military cooperation between the two allies.

Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, said the plans, if confirmed, would be a sign of “growing competition for access to infrastructure around the Indo-Pacific from both China and the US”.

“China is rapidly strengthening its military capacity to keep US forces at greater distance from its territory,” Jennings said. “It’s not surprising that the US response is to look for a wider variety of places from which it can operate with its military.”