News: Australia is expanding its military recruitment to include non-citizens in an effort to bolster its defence capabilities.
Important Highlights
- This is due to Australia struggling to meet recruitment targets for its military.
- Citizens from the Five Eyes countries will be favoured to join.
- The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US.
- These countries are parties to the multilateral UK-USA Agreement.
- Australia is bolstering its military by ramping up recruitment in response to a perceived growing threat from China and a current defence personnel count of around 90,000.
About Five Eyes Alliance
- Members: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States.
- Origin: Formed under the UK-USA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.
- Features: Partners exchange extensive intelligence, originally focusing on signals intelligence.
Expansion:
- Nine Eyes: Includes Netherlands, Denmark, France, Norway.
- 14 Eyes: Includes Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden.
Formation Background:
- Origins: Stemmed from WWII intelligence sharing between UK and US after breaking German and Japanese codes.
- BRUSA Agreement (1943): Initiated intelligence sharing to support US forces in Europe.
- UKUSA Agreement (1946): Formalized alliance; Canada (1949), New Zealand, Australia (1956) joined.
Secrecy and Recognition:
- Secrecy: Agreement’s existence known from 1980s; fully acknowledged after UKUSA agreement files released in 2010.
