Australia will take command of an international maritime effort to protect shipping routes in the Red Sea for the first time but won't deploy any military resources. The ABC can reveal that defence will soon announce its assuming command of the middle east taskforce.
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00:00Here in the Defence Minister's own Victorian electorate outside Geelong, Richard Marles
00:06has helped to open a new facility by the South Korean defence company Hanwha that will be
00:13building the Australian Army's next generation of infantry fighting vehicles.
00:19Now Richard Marles has today also confirmed that Australia will soon be taking command
00:25of an international maritime task force in the Middle East that's dedicated to protecting
00:30shipping routes in the Red Sea and around the Gulf of Aden.
00:34The ABC first reported on this mission a month ago and today Richard Marles has confirmed
00:41that Australia will soon take command of this combined task force 153 from October.
00:48We are very proud of the fact that we will be taking, and Australia will be taking command
00:56of the combined task force 153.
01:00This is a very significant step and Australia will now be in charge of CTF 153 in securing
01:08shipping through the Red Sea and it speaks to the fact that we have been a part of the
01:13combined maritime force for a long time now and we have been part of this specific task
01:17force from the moment that it has been stood up.
01:21In terms of the deployment of specific assets, we've not had a ship in the Red Sea for many
01:31years now.
01:32It was the former coalition government which brought the last of the frigates that we had
01:37operating in the Red Sea back to Australia.
01:42We need to be focused on our region.
01:44But in taking command from Italy of this task force, Australia won't be deploying any warships
01:52or any additional military personnel.
01:55A handful of Australian personnel that are already based in the Middle East will be running
02:01CTF 153 as it's known.
02:05But the fact that Australia is not deploying a warship to the Middle East has been heavily
02:10criticised by the federal opposition and even in the United States it's raising eyebrows
02:16that Australia has chosen not to deploy a warship.
02:20The Australian military is adamant though that its priorities are closer to home, protecting
02:27the trade routes towards Australia and going into the South China Sea.