Australia's Foreign and Defence Ministers are on their way to Washington for their first meeting with the Biden administration since the Democratic president took office.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the American defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, will host Marise Payne and Peter Dutton for the annual talks between the allies, known as AUSMIN, later this week.

Ashley Townshend is the Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre. He spoke to ABC NewsRadio's Thomas Oriti about what will be on the agenda.