Funny how the balance of power on the Pacific Rim is affected by two of its smallest population sized countries:Australia, and North Korea. Both have outsized importance, but for different reasons.
According to the list on Google Australia has the exact same population size as North Korea. Both have 26 million people. In east Asia thats a TINY size.
South Korea has 62 million people. Yet it, and Japan, and the US, and even the North's 'ally' China (to some degree) all feel threatened by North Korea, and its saber rattling shenanigans, and playing around with nukes.
Australia is tiny in population size, but physically HUGE. Lots a land. Lots of resources. But lacks manpower to defend itself.
Australia relied on Britain, and on the US, to defend itself from Japan in World War Two ( at the time Japan probably had about 14 times the population of Australia, today the ratio is still about six to one).
So its not surprising that Australia would want a "big stick" to carry around, even while it "talks softly" to its bigger population sized neighbors to the north in Asia. Not that China, nor India, will attack them tomorrow, nor the next day. But someday...who knows?