"Over the persistent and evolving threat of malicious hybrid activity," London and Canberra said — a phrase that captured the throughline of a week in June when Australia sent its foreign and defence ministers to Europe to knit a coalition against hybrid coercion that crosses oceans.
Marles and Wong’s week of diplomacy in Europe
In the week of 8 June, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong held Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN), met with German counterparts, and conducted separate visits to Paris and Helsinki. The itinerary was explicit: maintain European engagement in Indo-Pacific security and articulate Australia’s interests related to the war in Ukraine, the Strait of Hormuz and the future of NATO. The diplomatic burst also offset, to some extent, the decision by G7 host and French President Emmanuel Macron not to invite Australia to a G7 meeting that week.
Status-of-forces talks with Germany and firmer Berlin language
In Berlin, Marles and Wong announced negotiations for a status-of-forces agreement to enhance the ability of Australian and German armed forces to exercise jointly and collaborate. The announcement accompanied what the source describes as noticeably firmer German language on Taiwan, South China Sea arbitration and freedom of navigation. Canberra’s extension of the foreign and defence ministers meeting format to Germany signals intent to build a more substantive security and defence relationship with Berlin, despite Germany not being a major Indo-Pacific security actor.
Finland, Pitch Black, and emerging defence technologies
In Helsinki, Marles visited civil defence preparedness infrastructure and confirmed Finland’s participation in the Royal Australian Air Force’s Pitch Black multinational air exercise in July and August in Darwin. The meetings also surfaced industrial links: reports noted Australia’s interest in engaging with Finnish defence companies ICEYE, which operates the world’s largest constellation of small active remote sensing satellites, and Helsing, a firm developing AI-powered drone and counter-drone technologies that are currently employed on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Upgraded ties with France; Britain and specific attributions
In Paris, Wong upgraded the Australia–France strategic roadmap. The joint Indo-Pacific Centre for Energy Transition, hosted by Swinburne University, will continue, while cooperation in national security and policing, counter-cybercrime and combatting drug trafficking will be enhanced — the latter explicitly flagged as having a strong Pacific component. In London, besides reaffirming commitment to AUKUS, Britain and Australia confirmed active joint projects on detection and counter-strike capabilities in space, and on drone and hypersonic technologies. The London meeting was the most consequential of the four engagements: it named two Russian threat actors and attributed escalating cyber activity to China-based "security companies," language that coincided with former MI6 chief Richard Moore saying that "without China, Russia would have lost" the war in Ukraine. The source also notes that British defence secretary John Healey resigned just after AUKMIN.
What this means for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ICEYE and Helsing, and defence policymakers
- Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Pacific Islands Forum and the Quad: The source argues these regional groupings must withstand information disruption, coordinate responses and share costs and risks of collective action — because state-sponsored hybrid threats form sustained campaigns that exploit gaps in coordination among states.
- ICEYE and Helsing (defence companies): Reported Australian interest in engagement with ICEYE and Helsing signals market and operational opportunities tied to remote sensing, AI-powered drones and counter-drone technology already used in Ukraine; those firms will be watched as practical enablers of multinational exercises and capability development.
- Defence ministries and policymakers: The negotiations on a status-of-forces agreement with Germany, Finland’s participation in Pitch Black, upgraded France ties and the London naming of threat actors together point to a shift toward practical preparedness — joint projects, exercises and interoperability measures designed to strengthen mutual counter-hybrid warfare capabilities.
Across these engagements the message is consistent: geography no longer separates Europe’s and the Indo-Pacific’s security challenges. The meetings emphasised practical preparedness and readiness — exercises, status-of-forces talks, industry engagement and coordinated attributions — as tools to confront paramilitary pressure at sea, cyber intrusions, foreign interference, economic coercion and information operations. The challenge that remains, as the source frames it, is to build "a cooperative security architecture that meaningfully incorporates the Indo-Pacific and generates enduring mechanisms for coordination, preparedness and collective action for years to come."
Read the original analysis: Australia and Europe at the centre of coalition against hybrid threats
