Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Again, thank you very much, Senator Abetz, for the question. Throughout COVID-19 one of the proudest things our nation has seen is that the ADF have not missed a beat. Yes, we've had to adapt work practices but we have not missed a beat throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time Australia has continued to strengthen its military-to-military engagement with its partners—partners who share our vision for a stable, prosperous and rules based Indo-Pacific. This is despite the many challenges facing us all with COVID-19. For example, our regional presence deployment, which ran from July to September, was the largest-ever ADF deployment to the Indo-Pacific. We exercised with 11 nations in total. The Navy has conducted seven separate maritime activities with Japan alone this year. Australia participated in the Malabar maritime exercise last month with close partners India, Japan and the United States, and those exercises continue.