Allan Behm
Advisor, International & Security Affairs Program

Richard Marles has gone to Washington. The KPI? Success in getting a meeting with JD Vance (Dep PM meets VP) and Pete Hegseth (Def Min meets Def Sec).

The message is that fawning to the two most outstanding fawners in the Trump administration pays off. Another billion to the US submaring constructors, and an implicit “deal” to support the US whenever they might want to use “our” submarines?

Marles needs some deep interrogation when he returns.

It won’t happen, of course.