Barack Obama has arrived in Australia on a visit that will be dominated by the announcement of a greater US military presence in the country as a counterbalance to China.

Obama arrived in Canberra, the Australian capital, on Wednesday afternoon on board Air Force One.

The US president will stay for a day and a half, meeting with the country's prime minister, Julia Gillard, and addressing the Australian parliament.

Obama has twice cancelled visits to Australia: once to stay in Washington to lobby for passage of his healthcare bill, and then to deal with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The visit is a chance to renew bonds with a close US ally and strengthen the two nations' defence posture in the Pacific region. It commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Australia-New Zealand-United States (Anzus) defence treaty, which binds the three countries to assist each other if attacked.

The president is expected to announce the US is expanding its military presence in Australia – putting more equipment in place, increasing its access to bases and conducting more joint exercises and training. This is in response to an increasingly aggressive China, which claims dominion over vast areas of the Pacific that the US considers international waters, and has alarmed smaller Asian neighbours by reigniting old territorial disputes, including confrontations over the South China Sea.

The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, has said the goal is to signal that America and Australia will stick together in face of any threats.

The deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said US forces would also be able to respond more quickly to natural disasters in the region, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and fight terrorism and piracy to help keep sea lanes open.

An increased US presence would help the US "protect our interests, protect our allies" and help it "play its critical role as an anchor of stability and security in the region", Rhodes said.

Kim Beazley, Australia's ambassador to the US and a former Labor defence minister and opposition leader, said Obama's mere appearance was "enormously important" to Australians. And for the US, Australia's location in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific was increasingly important as China became more powerful.

"It's an area where the United States has got considerable freedom of action, considerable interests, growing interests," Beazley said. "And Australia is well located strategically."

Obama is to meet with Gillard on Wednesday, then on Thursday address parliament before travelling to Darwin on Australia's remote northern coast.

It's the first time a sitting US president has been to Darwin, where US and Australian forces were killed in a Japanese attack during the second world war. Obama will visit a memorial to the dead.

Obama will visit a military base in Darwin that is expected to be at the centre of America's plans to send more troops.

From Australia Obama will head to Indonesia for a security summit with Asian nations before finishing his nine-day trip and returning to Washington on 20 November.