Defence Minister Marise Payne has rejected calls from a former navy admiral for Australia to pull warships out of the Middle East for more operations in the immediate neighbourhood.
Senator Payne insisted Australia was doing enough in the region, pointing to the three-month-long Indo-Pacific Endeavour naval exercise involving landing helicopter dock HMAS Adelaide and frigates HMAS Darwin and Toowoomba.
The warships will visit Brunei, Cambodia, the Federated States of Micronesia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
Meanwhile, landing ship HMAS Choules is in Vanuatu helping to rescue people from an island facing the threat of a volcano eruption.
Senator Payne said Australian naval efforts in the Middle East had netted tens of thousands of kilograms of illegal drugs.
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"Which is a key to stopping the financing of terrorism," she told Sky News on Friday.
Retired rear admiral James Goldrick argues Australia needs to free up surface warships to increase our permanent presence in the western Pacific.
That meant curtailing the longstanding Middle East maritime commitment which was tying up a third of the surface combatant force.
Maritime activities should have more emphasis on the South China Sea, Admiral Goldrick said.
China's territorial claims and the creation of artificial islands have drawn criticism from its neighbours, the US and Australia, raising concerns about freedom of navigation.
