EU and Australia seek to step up defense and security cooperation

Brussels – The EU and Australia are leaving behind the failed free trade agreement negotiations and changing strategy. Better to proceed sector by sector: after the agreement, signed a year ago, on critical raw materials, Brussels and Canberra have agreed to launch negotiations on a security and defense partnership.

EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa met with freshly
re-elected Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese  at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada. “At a time of increasing tensions and strategic competition, trusted partners must stand together,” she said, wishing “the enduring friendship between Europe and Australia enters a new phase today.”

The partnership will provide a framework for cooperation in areas including the defense industry, cyber security, counter-terrorism, and hybrid threats. “This will open the door to joint defense procurement opportunities and benefit both our industries and security,” Albanese commented. Defense and Security Partnerships (PDS), however, do not in any way entail military deployment obligations.

The EU thus adds another link to the network of defensive partnerships signed with those who – Costa emphasized – “share the same values and a strong commitment to multilateralism and the rules-based world order.”  So far, the EU has concluded similar partnerships with the United Kingdom, Norway, Moldova, South Korea, Japan, Albania, and North Macedonia, while those with Canada are under negotiation.

The European Commission has made it clear that today’s negotiations will remain separate from the efforts to conclude a free trade agreement with Australia, which have been ongoing since 2018 and which most recently stalled in October 2023 over Canberra’s misgivings related mainly to certain restrictions for Australian farmers to access the European market. Brussels reiterated that it “intends to pursue” the negotiations “in Australia’s national interest.” It underlined the “renewed commitment to conclude the free trade agreement” that emerged after the May 2025 parliamentary elections in Canberra.

In 2023, Australia was the EU’s 20th largest trading partner, while for Australia, trade with the old continent is only smaller than trade with China and Japan. Total trade in goods reached a value of EUR 49.4 billion, plus EUR 38 billion in services.