Pacific Newswire

The United States and Australia signed a framework memorandum of understanding July 7 outlining future Australian participation on cooperative missile defence activities.

The 25-year agreement lays the groundwork for joint U.S.-Australian missile defence system development and testing, allows information exchange aimed at establishing new joint efforts, and includes Australia as a participating country in the U.S. missile defence program, according to a U.S. Department of Defense press release.

The agreement also will include more specific arrangements as both nations agree on various projects and activities, as well as the potential for industry-to-industry cooperative ventures for technology development.

Areas of near-term cooperative efforts will include development and testing of advanced radar technology capable of providing improved early detection of ballistic missiles after launch, and also potential options for providing a missile defence capability for a new Australian destroyer, according to the press release.

The agreement was just one of the accomplishments of the 16th U.S.-Australia ministerial meeting held in Washington. At a joint press briefing at the State Department July 7, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the two countries are "working together for peace and security in the world in ways that could not have been imagined" when the first of these meetings, known as "AusMin," began in 1985 in Canberra, Australia.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced at the joint press conference that the two countries are also issuing a joint statement on interoperability and on the cooperative development of a joint combined training capability.

"By creating a training environment in Australia to test and evaluate our forces in a wide range of scenarios, our countries should be better able to integrate our military capabilities to meet the challenges of the 21st century," Rumsfeld said.