Brendan Nicholson
TEAMS of US and Australian officials are finalising a series of agreements, to be signed at this month's AUSMIN summit, that will give US forces greater access to Australian military bases.
Shared facilities are expected to include HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia, an army base in Townsville as the primary location for operations, the port of Darwin and the Bradshaw Field Training Area in the Northern Territory.
The agreements, a key focus of this year's talks on defence and foreign affairs issues in San Francisco, will mean the Americans will not just be offered space on a base, they will be there with what Defence calls "full knowledge and concurrence" with full access to intelligence and maintenance facilities.
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