US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin attend a meeting with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles (neither pictured) in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters
High-level talks between America’s and Australia’s defence chiefs and top diplomats on Tuesday turned a spotlight on China’s “coercive behaviour” in the latest sign of a deepening security relationship between the allies.
“We’re working together today to tackle shared security challenges, from coercive behaviour by the PRC, to Russia’s war of choice against Ukraine, to the turmoil in the Middle East,” said US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, referring to China by its initials, as the talks opened in Annapolis, Maryland.
After the 34th annual instalment of the ministerial consultations ended, Austin said the two sides agreed to continue strengthening their “force-posture cooperation”. This included, Austin said, upgrading critical airbases in western and northern Australia and adding new locations for cooperation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken added that they agreed on “the importance of maintaining peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait and in the South and East China seas as well as “countering any attempts at coercion”.
In a joint statement, Washington and Canberra expressed concern over China’s “excessive maritime claims” in the South China Sea and committed to maintaining a long-term presence of aircraft and vessels in the Indo-Pacific.
They also noted concern over China’s “dangerous and escalatory behaviour” towards Philippine vessels “lawfully operating within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone”, as well as China’s military and coastguard activity around Taiwan.
The two sides further called on China to cease any support to Russia’s industrial base, reflecting a declaration made at the Nato summit in Washington last month.
But the two countries also stressed the importance of maintaining open channels of communications with Beijing and cooperating with China to address issues of global and shared interest, such as tackling climate change and addressing the debt sustainability of vulnerable countries.
Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads on a number of issues, including America’s support for Taiwan’s defence and China’s military activity in the South China Sea, most of which Beijing claims control over, including the Second Thomas Shoal, where US ally the Philippines has maritime claims.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
But glimpses of improved Sino-American ties have also surfaced. Earlier on Tuesday, the US National Security Council hailed China’s decision to impose additional regulations on fentanyl precursors as a “valuable step forward”. That assessment followed bilateral meetings last week in Washington on counter-narcotics, long a flashpoint in the relationship.
While Canberra and Beijing are similarly at odds over issues like foreign interference, their tensions have eased since Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government came to power in 2022.
Within weeks of Albanese taking office, the two countries’ defence ministers met on the sidelines of a major regional security conference in Singapore.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her US counterpart Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington on Monday. Photo: Reuters
And earlier this year, China lifted three years of punitive tariffs on Australian wine, prompting a surge in imports to the mainland.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles, representing the Australian side, thanked the US for its global leadership.
“American leadership has always mattered,” Wong said. “It’s vital for peace, for prosperity in a free and open world.”
Washington in recent years has been boosting its ties with Canberra, evident in a landmark Aukus security partnership that includes Britain. Earlier in the week, the two announced a partnership focused on using satellite imagery to better manage natural resources, one of several new cooperative agreements spotlighted in the joint statement.
Marles on Tuesday highlighted the growing role of a US Marine rotational force in northern Australia and closer integration of the allies’ defence industrial bases.
He said the two sides had agreed on a memorandum of understanding by the end of this year for the co-assembly of guided land-based rockets in Australia as well as an MOU on the co-production of a long-range, precision-strike missile in the country.
Marles further touted Aukus’s role in providing Australia “a pathway forward” in acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine capability. Under Aukus, Washington plans to sell at least three nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra in the next decade.
Additional areas of cooperation raised on Tuesday included countering disinformation, emerging technology, the transition to clean energy, facilitating high-quality infrastructure in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East.
The meeting took place in the wake of a rocket strike on Monday in Iraq that injured seven US personnel. The Middle East has been bracing for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week’s killing of senior members of Islamic militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
Marles said he “could not be happier” with the extent of America’s presence in the Indo-Pacific, especially given its responsibilities in addressing Ukraine and the Middle East.
He lauded Washington’s expansion of engagements with Japan and South Korea, which he said opened doors to greater Australian cooperation with those countries as well.
In recent years, the Joe Biden administration has increasingly used “mini-laterals” to make diplomatic headway in the Indo-Pacific. Last year, the US hosted its first trilateral with the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David, and earlier this year, its first with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines in Washington.
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin (right) welcomes Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles (left) at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Washington’s engagement through “mini-laterals” forms part of a “new regional architecture”, according to Mira Rapp-Hooper, White House senior director for East Asia and Oceania, last month.
“It is those mini-lateral groupings that we so often talk about in the context of the Quad, US-ROK-Japan relationship, now US-Philippines-Japan,” she said, referring to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue comprising Australia, India, Japan and the US.
“But it is also those increasing linkages between Australia, India, Japan, the ROK, that create forms of cooperation that are increasingly organic and self-sustaining,” Rapp-Hooper added.
Separately on Tuesday, the US announced it held an Indo-Pacific consultation with Sweden on Monday.
At the consultation led by Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Jan Knutsson, the two sides reiterated concern over China’s backing of Russia’s defence industrial base.
The South China Sea, stability across the Taiwan Strait, and strengthening relations with Pacific nations and Indian Ocean island nations also came up during the discussion.
