by Matt Walsh
CANBERRA, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Defence White Paper has shown that Australia will almost double its defence spending within the next 15 years in order to keep up with what it called the "unprecedented transformation" occurring in the Indo-Pacific region.
Defence Minister Marise Payne said the Australian government is set to raise the annual defence budget from 23.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2016/17 to 42.5 billion by 2025/26 - in line with its promise to raise defence spending up to 2 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2023.
Dr Amy King, from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, told Xinhua the White Paper was a measured response to the "modernization" of military forces in the immediate South East Asian region.
The paper, released this week, outlines the major investment in the defence department on the grounds that "Asia's defence spending is now larger than Europe's".
Read the full story at Xinhua
NOTE: The “2016 Defence White Paper” Link in the above was added by PacificSentinel for clarity & context.