The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said the “seabed is a battlefield” in a combative speech urging Beijing to be more transparent about its maritime operations, and taking aim at weak international controls over so-called “shadow-fleet” vessels. The warning came as the US, UK and Australia announced a new Aukus project to develop new underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables. The same announcement also revealed that Australia would buy three secondhand Virginia-class submarines from the US under Aukus, instead of a mix of old and new, in a move…
Tag: Australian foreign policy
Australia eyes security pact with Fiji as pushback from Beijing undermines agreement with Vanuatu
Australia looks close to signing a landmark security and economic agreement with Fiji as part of the Albanese government’s efforts to contain China’s growing influence across the Pacific. But pushback from Beijing has undermined a separate pact with Vanuatu’s government, resulting in a scaling back of a deal aimed at locking in Australia as the country’s primary security partner. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, and the minister for Pacific Island affairs, Pat Conroy, were due to arrive in Suva on Tuesday afternoon as part of a three-day trip focused on…
What is Shen Yun – the Chinese dance troupe that received a bomb threat causing the evacuation of the Lodge?
Yesterday’s evacuation of the prime minister from the Lodge has been linked to the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun. In a bomb threat emailed to the group, the sender said explosives would be detonated if Australian performances by Shen Yun proceeded. This is just the latest controversy surrounding Shen Yun. But this use of a security threat as a prop to achieve other goals exposes a deeper and increasingly consequential struggle over culture, representation and political voice in the transnational Chinese world. At stake is not a dance performance, but…
Australia’s confidence in Trump’s US has evaporated. What will it take for the alliance to rupture?
Perched high above Canberra stands a stylised American eagle statue on a towering column. Colloquially derided as the Phallus in Blunderland or the Chicken on a Stick, the Australian-American Memorial was paid for by mid-century Australians “to commemorate the service and sacrifice of American men and women in the defence of Australia” during the second world war. But there is perhaps another way to interpret an 80-metre statue high above Australia’s defence headquarters: that of a malevolent power monitoring a subordinate. For seven decades Australia has sought and found security…
Russia’s war in Ukraine carries a warning for Australia: prepare for possible conflict in the Asia-Pacific
Military experts and diplomats agree new strategies and tactics – drone-based or otherwise – playing out in Ukraine’s theatre of war may be replicated closer to home Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast It’s early morning at the sprawling 32 Tactical air base in Łask, a couple of hours outside the Polish capital of Warsaw, and the late autumn wind is sharp. Nearby, a crew of Australians are wrapping up the deployment of an E-7 Wedgetail surveillance plane, sent to the country to assist Nato’s…
Australia says ‘deeply concerning, destabilising’ Chinese exercises near Taiwan risk inflaming regional tension
Australia says it is deeply concerned about Chinese military exercises near Taiwan, and has raised the issue with Chinese officials. In a statement released on Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) said the large-scale simulations risked destabilising the region and could result in an accident or escalation. The People’s Liberation Army launched the expansive surprise attack simulation on Monday, calling the war games “Justice Mission 2025”. Dfat said the exercises were “deeply concerning, destabilising and risk inflaming regional tensions”. “Australia strongly opposes any actions that increase the…
Australia tracking Chinese navy flotilla in Philippine Sea as Marles announces major defence overhaul
The Albanese government has announced a major overhaul of the defence department, aimed at tackling budget and timeline blowouts, on the same day it confirmed Australia was tracking a Chinese navy flotilla in the Philippine Sea. In the biggest changes to the defence bureaucracy in Australia since the mid-1970s, Labor will merge three agencies: the capability acquisition and sustainment group, the guided weapons and explosive ordinance group, and the naval shipbuilding and sustainment group. It will establish a new independent delivery agency to manage billions of dollars of complex defence…
John Kerry urges Australia to take ‘hard-nosed’ approach with world’s biggest fossil fuel-producing countries at Cop31
Australia’s government, which will preside over the next UN climate summit, should gather the world’s 25 biggest greenhouse gasemitting countries and push them to draw up a roadmap to end the era of fossil fuels, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said. Only by “hard-nosed” confrontation with fossil fuel producers, and reducing their consumption in major economies, would the world be able to tackle the climate crisis, he said. Australia’s climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has been given the role of “president of negotiations”, even though…
‘China is watching’: Finland warns defeating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine key to stability in Indo-Pacific
Defeating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is critical to restraining China in the Indo-Pacific, Finland’s defence minister has said, warning Europe and democratic partners, including Australia, face a fight of global consequences. Antti Häkkänen praised Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on two Russian oil companies last week, calling the move a major sign of resolve by the US president against Vladimir Putin’s three-year long war. In an interview with Guardian Australia at the ministry of defence in Helsinki, Häkkänen said the West’s willingness to stay the course in opposing Russia’s…
The world dropped the ball on critical minerals and China pounced. Is it too late for Australia and the US to close the gap?
Almost eight years to the day after the last Holden rolled off an Adelaide factory assembly line, Anthony Albanese announced a $13bn deal with Donald Trump to help champion a domestic rare-earth industry. Announcing the deal this week in Washington, the prime minister called it “a really significant day” that would take the relationship between the two countries “to the next level”. “We’re just getting started,” Albanese said. The US president claimed “in about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths, that you won’t…