Shangri-La Dialogue: Australia pushes China for 'strategic explanation' of military build-up
Australia has continued to push China for more transparency on its military expansion, saying that China needed to offer a "strategic explanation".
At the final plenary of the Shangri-La Dialogue defence summit in Singapore on Sunday, Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles said China could look to Australia's communication approach with its nuclear-powered submarine programme as the standard or model of "military transparency".
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Marles said at the Sunday plenary that Canberra made over 60 calls to regional and world leaders when the Aukus deal was announced in March that Australia would own up to eight submarines through the trilateral alliance Aukus by the 2050s.
"There is a very significant build-up that we are seeing with China, in terms of military. It's the lack of a strategic explanation for what that's for and what that is about," Marles said at the final plenary.
"If you want the standard - others can judge when we meet the standard - but what we seek to do is to aspire to a standard where we make clear to the region and the world what we are about in terms of the capabilities that we have and why we're developing them.
"I guess that's what we would seek from others."
But he did not respond on which aspects of China's military expansion were troubling.
When asked if he had spoken to his Chinese counterpart directly about China's military expansion or referred to the biannual Chinese white paper on defence plans, he said he could not go into the specifics of the conversations that he had with Chinese Defence Minister General Li Shangfu.
On Saturday night, the pair met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, for the first time since Li's appointment this year, where they discussed the importance of resumed ministerial talks as part of efforts to stabilise bilateral relations.
Marles said however more direct communication and dialogues only kicked off a year ago after relations started to improve between the two countries following the election of the Anthony Albanese government last May.
"[They are] really important in terms of giving explanation for both our strategic intent and hopefully that of China," Marles said.
"And so we are trying to make sure that those conversations happen and that dialogue is really important in terms of building confidence. And that's why the stabilisation relationship is so important."
While the Albanese government had spoken to countries directly about the Aukus submarines it was unclear if the former Morrison government that first flagged the Aukus programme in 2021 had done so.
Local press said Morrison's cabinet was in the dark about the submarines and much of the conversations Morrison had with Australia's Aukus partners the US and the UK were "in secrecy", while French President Emmanuel Macron accused Morrison of lying to him about the submarines he was planning on buying from them.
Australia tore up an existing contract to buy submarines from France to make room for the Aukus purchase.
Marles concluded his Shangri-La presentation on Sunday by saying that Asean centrality remained key to Australia and was the centrepiece for Asia-Pacific's security.
"We have our own agency in building our own security. For Australia, the first model for security is Asean ... no other mechanism brings together the critical group of states that is a prerequisite for any durable strategic equilibrium in our region," he said.
"Although Australia is not a member, we will always invest in the core meaning and efficacy of Asean centrality. Asean is a necessary condition for regional security."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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