Marles raises ‘unsafe’ navy encounters in ‘frank’ talks with Chinese defence minister

Singapore: Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles has used a face-to-face meeting with his Chinese counterpart,Admiral Dong Jun,to raise concerns directly about the dangerous tactics used by People’s Liberation Army in recent confrontations with the Australian navy.

Marles met Dong for a 45-minute discussion on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defence summit on Saturday,marking the first face-to-face talks between the pair since the admiral was appointed China’s defence minister in December.

Describing the talks as “frank”,Marles declined to go into detail of the substance of the discussions but confirmed that he raised the recent incidents between the PLA forces and the Australian navy.

“It was a good meeting. We certainly set out our different positions,but it is positive that there is dialogue,” Marles told this masthead at the summit.

The meeting marks the first occasion that Australia has voiced its concerns at a minister-to-minister level since it accused China of “unsafe and unprofessional” behaviour last month after aPLA fighter released flares in the path of an Australian naval helicopter in international waters. Until now,the federal government has only raised the issue at a diplomatic level and in public statements,prompting criticism from the Coalition that Labor should have “picked up the phone” and raised it directly at a leadership or ministerial level.

Marles rejected criticism that he could have elevated the issue sooner,saying Saturday’s meeting was the first ministerial face-to-face since the incident,and noted no such dialogue existed with Chinese ministers under the former Coalition government.

Last month’s incident followed another encounter in November in which Australia said a Chinese warship had deployed sonar pulses while Australian naval divers were in the East China Sea in November. China has previously disputed Australia’s characterisation of both incidents and sought to blame Australia for the confrontations.

Marles would not be drawn on the scenario canvassed by Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr earlier at the summit,in which he said an attack by China in the South China Sea that killed a Filipino citizen would be “very,very close” to an act of war.

Asked whether this would be a red line for Australia as well,if another encounter with the PLA resulted in casualties,Marles said hypotheticals were unhelpful.

“It is a matter of making sure that we are doing everything we can to avoid that situation,” he said. “The deeper the understanding we have with the People’s Republic of China about our behaviours and theirs,the better.”

The meeting with Dong followed a speech by Marles at a panel discussion earlier on Saturday in which he highlighted the incidents with Australian naval forces,China’s aggression in the South China Sea,and its recent military drills around Taiwan as undermining confidence in China’s role in maintaining global stability.

“As China steps up to a larger role it must accept,like all great powers,that there will be much greater scrutiny on the way it uses its strength and which countries it chooses to partner with. Acceptance of such restraints is the key to any successful and durable international order,” Marles said in the speech,as he questioned China’s support for Russia.

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Marles to call out China’s ‘unsafe’ encounters with Australian navy

Marles’ speech was significantly more pointed in directly calling out China’s actions than the addresses given by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Marcos,who also addressed the summit. They canvassed similar concerns about military aggression in the South China Sea and disrespect for international law,but largely without naming China directly.

However,Marles’ remarks were toned down in parts from the draft excerpts circulated to journalists a day earlier. An explicit reference to regional order being impossible “without a leading Chinese role” and if China continued to ignore the “sovereign rights of its neighbours,or the obligations imposed by international law”,was pared back to a more generalised statement about this responsibility falling to “all countries – but especially big ones”.

In a question-and-answer session following his speech,Marles was confronted by Chinese delegate Qichao Zhu,dressed in military uniform,who complained about “mistakes” in his remarks. Zhu asserted that Taiwan was a province of China,claimed that a Philippines ship had “intentionally collided with China’s coast guard” and suggested that Marles’ concept of a rules-based international order was one centred on Australia’s national security interests.

In response,Marles said international arbitration mechanisms existed for working through disputes about international rules.

Austin also met Dong at the summit,and in his speech stressed the importance of dialogue with his Chinese counterparts saying that war with Beijing was neither imminent nor unavoidable.

Chinese military academic Cao Yanzhong asked Austin whether the US was trying to create an Asian version of NATO with its emphasis on partnerships and alliances. He suggested that could trigger conflict with China,citing the claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO expansion had led to war in Ukraine.

Austin said the US was simply co-operating with “like-minded countries with similar values” and was not trying to create a NATO-type alliance,while rejecting Cao’s interpretation of the cause of the Ukraine war saying Putin made a decision to “unlawfully invade” his neighbour.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the summit on Sunday to build support among Asian leaders for his country’s war efforts against Russia and to appeal for them to support a peace summit in Switzerland next month,to which Russia was not invited and China is not attending.

With AP

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