The Australian government will send a surveillance aircraft to Germany to help monitor the flow of military and humanitarian supplies into Ukraine.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced the deployment after talks with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin on Monday, a day before attending a Nato summit in Lithuania where the war in Ukraine will dominate discussions.
Albanese also confirmed previous reports that Australia would join the German-led Climate Club, a new international grouping that is expected to focus on reducing emissions in heavy industry and bringing “green steel” and “green hydrogen” onto the market quickly.
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The Royal Australian Air Force plans to deploy an E-7A Wedgetail aircraft for six months from October with a mission of protecting multinational logistics hubs that supply critical support to Ukraine.
Officials said the aircraft, to be based in Germany, would “help to ensure the continued and uninterrupted flow of military and humanitarian assistance into Ukraine” by giving an early warning of any threats.
The Wedgetail, based on the Boeing 737-700, features a long-range surveillance radar and is equipped to simultaneously track airborne and maritime targets, according to the RAAF.
It is to be deployed as part of Operation Kudu – which to date has been the name given to the efforts by Australian defence force personnel currently deployed to the United Kingdom to train Ukrainian army recruits.
Australian officials emphasised that the Wedgetail would operate in European airspace and not within Ukraine, Russia or Belarus. The deployment will include up to 100 crew and support personnel.
The commitment comes amid renewed calls from the Coalition for the Albanese government to step up its contribution to Ukraine, two weeks after Australia announced another $110m assistance package, which did not include some of the items that Kyiv had requested.
“We stand with the people of Ukraine,” Albanese told reporters near the Brandenburg Gate on Monday, prior to the meeting with Scholz.
“This is a war about the international rule of law, about whether a large nation can seek to impose its will on a smaller nation. This is about national sovereignty. This is about the people of Ukraine struggling to defend their democracy and their sovereignty.”
Albanese distanced himself from the former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, who labelled the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, a “supreme fool” as the alliance increases its attention on China and the broader Indo-Pacific region.
Albanese said Stoltenberg was a “friend of Australia”, adding that the Australian government supported “the extraordinary effort that Nato is showing because this is a struggle that has implications for the whole world”.
Albanese said it was a matter for the alliance whether it opened a new liaison office in Japan – an idea not favoured by the French government – but said Australia was participating at the two-day Nato summit constructively for the second year in a row.
“I’m interested in looking forward,” he said.
Defence cooperation was one of the main items on the agenda during the meeting between the two leaders in Berlin.
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Hours earlier, Albanese witnessed the signing of an agreement between senior officials for Australia to export more than 100 Boxer heavy weapon carriers to Germany. They are to be produced in Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane, by the German company Rheinmetall.
Albanese invited the German chancellor to visit Australia next year.
“We discussed ways to draw our countries even more closely together, with a focus on trade, the clean economy, defence and regional security,” he said in a statement after the meeting.
“Australia and Germany are forging ahead with our green agenda, and seizing the exciting opportunities of clean energy transition while delivering new jobs and export opportunities for both countries.”
The Climate Club was a German-backed initiative launched after the G7 meeting last year. Australia joins other members including the EU, France, the UK, the US and Indonesia.
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