WASHINGTON: Australia said Thursday that more US troops will rotate through the island nation and that the allies will cooperate on missiles, the latest joint steps amid shared concerns over a rising China.

Outlining further measures on a visit to Washington, Defense Minister Peter Dutton said Australia will be “significantly enhancing” cooperation including working together on the development of missiles and explosive ordnance.

He said Australia was willing to see more US Marines in a decade-old rotation through the northern city of Darwin

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, also without giving numbers, confirmed that the United States “will expand our access and presence in Australia.”

It is impossible to read this as anything other than a response to China’s rise, and a significant escalation of American commitment to that challenge. The United States has only ever shared this technology with the United Kingdom, so the fact that Australia is now joining this club indicates that the United States is prepared to take significant new steps and break with old norms to meet the China challenge.

Australia cannot have this capability while assuming that it does not come with heightened expectations that Australia will take America’s side in any dispute with China.

That is the real long-term significance of the deal ­– even more than the agreement to base Marines in Darwin, this deal signals that Australia is betting on the United States as a long-term partner in its region as China’s rise continues.

It is extraordinary that this momentous decision could be made without parliamentary or public scrutiny.