Indo-Pacific nations oppose having their futures “dictated by a single major power,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, as the region faces an intensifying struggle for influence between the US and China.
(Bloomberg) — Indo-Pacific nations oppose having their futures “dictated by a single major power,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, as the region faces an intensifying struggle for influence between the US and China.
In a major speech to the National Press Club on Monday, Wong will warn that strategic competition between the US and China needs to be managed “responsibly” and it’s not merely about who is “top dog” in the Indo-Pacific.
“It’s clear to me from my travels throughout the region that countries don’t want to live in a closed, hierarchical region where the rules are dictated by a single major power to suit its own interests,” Wong said, according to excerpts from her speech.
The foreign minister defended Australia’s right to build up its military capabilities, including the controversial Aukus agreement which will see it field a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines as early as the 2030s.
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Australia needs to strengthen both its foreign and defense policies to make it “more influential in the world,” Wong said. “Together, they make it harder for states to coerce other states against their interests through force or the threatened use of force.”
Australia has long balanced its close security relationship with the US and vast economic ties with China, its largest trading partner. Since the election of the center-left Labor government in May 2022, relations between Australia and China have rapidly improved, with senior ministers from both sides meeting for the first time in years.
Trade sanctions imposed by China on Australia in the wake of a 2020 call by Canberra for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 are slowly being lifted. In the past week, Beijing announced a review of heavy tariffs imposed on Australian barley.
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