Australia will send extra sailors to Red Sea to help international efforts to keep shipping lanes open

Australia will send sailors to the Red Sea to help international efforts to keep critical shipping lanes open against a rebel blockade.

Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed on Thursday the nation had denied a request by the United States to send a warship to the Middle East to protect the shipping lanes from attacks from Houthi rebels.

Instead, he said Australia would “almost triple” the number of Australian Defence Force personnel deployed at an international navy headquarters in Bahrain to up to 16.

“We won’t be sending a ship or a plane. That said, we will almost triple our contribution to the Combined Maritime Force,” Mr Marles told Sky News.

“We need to be really clear about our strategic focus, and our strategic focus is our region — the northeast Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Pacific.”

The Houthis rebels are enforcing a blockade, which they say is in support of Palestine and have been using drones and missiles to target ships since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Australia will send up to six extra ADF officers to the Combined Maritime Force in the New Year to assist a US-led mission of 39 countries, including the UK, Bahrain, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy and France, to stop attacks by the Iran-backed group.

In addition, next year, the total number of Australian personnel will double to about 10 under a separate mission known as Operation Manitou, which promotes maritime security and stability in the Middle East and East Africa regions.

This will take the total contribution to as many as 16 officers.

ASPI senior analyst Malcolm Davis said the Government’s decision only to send extra personnel was “the wrong step” and that it should have had a “more sophisticated approach” to how it responded to the US request.

“It will not go unnoticed in Washington DC... that in the face of a severe test to the international rules-based order and maritime trade, we blinked,” Mr David told The West Australian.

“We could have sent a warship or sent one up into the Indo-Pacific and freed up a US warship to go to the Red Sea. This was a poorly thought-out decision by the Government.

“To say we’re only going to defend the maritime trade in the Indo-Pacific is a simplistic approach. We need to embrace an approach of defending maritime trade in focal areas where they’re most under threat.”

However, former army chief Peter Leahy said now was the time to focus on the Indo-Pacific and the more immediate threats apparent in the region.

“We shouldn’t forget, too, that there are many other countries with interests similar to ours,” he wrote in The Australian.

“And, like us, they are also interested in the sea lines of communication through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. It’s time for them to step forward.”

Mr Marles said criticisms of the Albanese Government’s position would annoy the US were “patently ridiculous” and that the Indo-Pacific region should be Australia’s maritime priority.

“We’ve not turned down a request. We’ve met the request,” he said.

“What comes from the Defence Strategic Review is an urgency around Australia to maintain a strategic focus on our immediate region, and that’s what we will do.”

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham agreed Australia’s strategic priorities lay in the Indo-Pacific but said the Suez Canal was also integral.

More than 12 per cent of global trade flows through the Suez Canal, which is linked to the Red Sea.

“It’s absolutely critical and in our national interest for us to see responses in the Red Sea that do deter Houthi rebels from creating the type of disruption that Iran and other players want to see occur,” Senator Birmingham said.

“We should do everything we can to work with and complement our partners.”