Growing alarm over China's expanding military posture dominates Shangri-La Dialogue
Mr Macron also used his address to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and mutual recognition of a Palestinian state.
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The Advertiser
5 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Australia boosts PNG defence as treaty looms
Australia has handed over a dozen armoured troop carriers to Papua New Guinea as the nations finalise a bilateral defence treaty. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles was in Port Moresby for the handover of the 12 armoured personnel carriers, which he said were constructed specifically for the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) in a $3 billion commitment. "The defence-to-defence relationship is at the heart of what is, for Australia, one of the most significant relationships that we have on the planet, and that is our relationship with Papua New Guinea, which is going to be framed significantly in five weeks' time as we approach the 50th anniversary of the independence of PNG," Mr Marles said. PNG Defence Minister Billy Joseph said the vehicles would go a long way to rebuilding the country's defence capability and capacity. He said the two nations' relationship had "gone from leaps to bounds". "We are really going to celebrate that on the 50th anniversary we will be signing our PNGDF and ADF Defence Treaty," he said. During his visit, Mr Marles is due to meet PNG Prime Minister James Marape and his deputy John Rosso. They will discuss the growing integration between both nations' defence forces and progress towards the bilateral defence treaty, which was announced in February. The development pact has been in the works for some months and will take in infrastructure planning, economic development and climate planning. Meanwhile, Senator Wong will travel to Fiji on Thursday to attend a meeting of foreign ministers at the Pacific Islands Forum, where she is expected to champion strengthened regional unity. The Pacific has become increasingly important as tensions simmer between China - Australia's biggest trading partner - and the US, one of the nation's most important allies. US official Elbridge Colby had been pushing Australia to clarify whether it would commit troops to potential conflict with China over Taiwan, while he leads a review into the trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the US, Australia and the UK. At a conference in March, Mr Marles said Australia could not rely solely on the US to counter China's military strength in the Indo-Pacific. Australia has handed over a dozen armoured troop carriers to Papua New Guinea as the nations finalise a bilateral defence treaty. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles was in Port Moresby for the handover of the 12 armoured personnel carriers, which he said were constructed specifically for the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) in a $3 billion commitment. "The defence-to-defence relationship is at the heart of what is, for Australia, one of the most significant relationships that we have on the planet, and that is our relationship with Papua New Guinea, which is going to be framed significantly in five weeks' time as we approach the 50th anniversary of the independence of PNG," Mr Marles said. PNG Defence Minister Billy Joseph said the vehicles would go a long way to rebuilding the country's defence capability and capacity. He said the two nations' relationship had "gone from leaps to bounds". "We are really going to celebrate that on the 50th anniversary we will be signing our PNGDF and ADF Defence Treaty," he said. During his visit, Mr Marles is due to meet PNG Prime Minister James Marape and his deputy John Rosso. They will discuss the growing integration between both nations' defence forces and progress towards the bilateral defence treaty, which was announced in February. The development pact has been in the works for some months and will take in infrastructure planning, economic development and climate planning. Meanwhile, Senator Wong will travel to Fiji on Thursday to attend a meeting of foreign ministers at the Pacific Islands Forum, where she is expected to champion strengthened regional unity. The Pacific has become increasingly important as tensions simmer between China - Australia's biggest trading partner - and the US, one of the nation's most important allies. US official Elbridge Colby had been pushing Australia to clarify whether it would commit troops to potential conflict with China over Taiwan, while he leads a review into the trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the US, Australia and the UK. At a conference in March, Mr Marles said Australia could not rely solely on the US to counter China's military strength in the Indo-Pacific. Australia has handed over a dozen armoured troop carriers to Papua New Guinea as the nations finalise a bilateral defence treaty. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles was in Port Moresby for the handover of the 12 armoured personnel carriers, which he said were constructed specifically for the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) in a $3 billion commitment. "The defence-to-defence relationship is at the heart of what is, for Australia, one of the most significant relationships that we have on the planet, and that is our relationship with Papua New Guinea, which is going to be framed significantly in five weeks' time as we approach the 50th anniversary of the independence of PNG," Mr Marles said. PNG Defence Minister Billy Joseph said the vehicles would go a long way to rebuilding the country's defence capability and capacity. He said the two nations' relationship had "gone from leaps to bounds". "We are really going to celebrate that on the 50th anniversary we will be signing our PNGDF and ADF Defence Treaty," he said. During his visit, Mr Marles is due to meet PNG Prime Minister James Marape and his deputy John Rosso. They will discuss the growing integration between both nations' defence forces and progress towards the bilateral defence treaty, which was announced in February. The development pact has been in the works for some months and will take in infrastructure planning, economic development and climate planning. Meanwhile, Senator Wong will travel to Fiji on Thursday to attend a meeting of foreign ministers at the Pacific Islands Forum, where she is expected to champion strengthened regional unity. The Pacific has become increasingly important as tensions simmer between China - Australia's biggest trading partner - and the US, one of the nation's most important allies. US official Elbridge Colby had been pushing Australia to clarify whether it would commit troops to potential conflict with China over Taiwan, while he leads a review into the trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the US, Australia and the UK. At a conference in March, Mr Marles said Australia could not rely solely on the US to counter China's military strength in the Indo-Pacific. Australia has handed over a dozen armoured troop carriers to Papua New Guinea as the nations finalise a bilateral defence treaty. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles was in Port Moresby for the handover of the 12 armoured personnel carriers, which he said were constructed specifically for the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) in a $3 billion commitment. "The defence-to-defence relationship is at the heart of what is, for Australia, one of the most significant relationships that we have on the planet, and that is our relationship with Papua New Guinea, which is going to be framed significantly in five weeks' time as we approach the 50th anniversary of the independence of PNG," Mr Marles said. PNG Defence Minister Billy Joseph said the vehicles would go a long way to rebuilding the country's defence capability and capacity. He said the two nations' relationship had "gone from leaps to bounds". "We are really going to celebrate that on the 50th anniversary we will be signing our PNGDF and ADF Defence Treaty," he said. During his visit, Mr Marles is due to meet PNG Prime Minister James Marape and his deputy John Rosso. They will discuss the growing integration between both nations' defence forces and progress towards the bilateral defence treaty, which was announced in February. The development pact has been in the works for some months and will take in infrastructure planning, economic development and climate planning. Meanwhile, Senator Wong will travel to Fiji on Thursday to attend a meeting of foreign ministers at the Pacific Islands Forum, where she is expected to champion strengthened regional unity. The Pacific has become increasingly important as tensions simmer between China - Australia's biggest trading partner - and the US, one of the nation's most important allies. US official Elbridge Colby had been pushing Australia to clarify whether it would commit troops to potential conflict with China over Taiwan, while he leads a review into the trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the US, Australia and the UK. At a conference in March, Mr Marles said Australia could not rely solely on the US to counter China's military strength in the Indo-Pacific.
News.com.au
8 hours ago
- News.com.au
US missile in Australia sparks fierce China response
China has accused Australia of being a 'tool' after hosting a secret prototype United States hypersonic missile system during recent war-games. 'Australia has not only already been a tool of the US Indo-Pacific strategy, but is increasingly becoming both a strategic and tactical weapon for Washington across multiple aspects,' East China Normal University Australia analyst Chen Hong told the Beijing-controlled South China Morning Post. The accusation comes after the US Army deployed its experimental new Dark Eagle Long Range Hypersonic Weapon outside the continental US for the first time. Two mobile missile launchers were carried by heavy lift aircraft to the Northern Territory and then moved to undisclosed locations by road as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 manoeuvres in recent weeks. Shanghai Fudan University strategist Xin Qiang told the SCMP the missile's deployment to the multinational exercise was a 'flexing of military muscle'. 'I think China will certainly maintain a high level of alertness and attention to this,' Mr Xin said. 'The military and security rivalry or competition between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific is likely to further intensify.' Australia's Talisman Sabre exercise is a biennial event. This year, it drew together 40,000 soldiers, sailors and aircrew from 19 nations in a range of exercises designed to improve interoperability and military preparedness. It kicked off on July 13, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was visiting China. 'Mines bigger than yours' Retired People's Liberation Army senior colonel and prolific media commentator Zhou Bo told the SCMP that the symbolic presence of the new Dark Eagle LRHW missile in Australia had not been missed by Beijing. The missile is capable of reaching Chinese-occupied territory from the Northern Territory. A June US Congressional Research Service report published last month says the truck-trailer-based system has a range of 2800km and can travel faster than Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound, or 6170km/h). That means it could reach Beijing's illegal South China Sea island fortresses from Australia in less than 30 minutes. But Mr Zhou, now part of Tsinghua University's Centre for International Security and Strategy, dismissed the missile's significance. He told the SCMP that China has had better hypersonic missiles for longer. 'In terms of weapons comparison, it's not a case of them having something we don't,' he said. 'What we have may even be better than theirs.' He pointed to the DF-17 hypersonic missile as having similar performance to the Dark Eagle. It has been in service since 2019. Mr Zhou added that the newer DF-27 could fly three times as far. Dark Eagle is expected to formally enter US Army service by the end of this year. It's one of the first operational outcomes of a decades-long race to catch up with Beijing's and Russia's hypersonic advances. A US Army Dark Eagle unit, called a battery, is made up of four launchers carrying a total of eight missiles. These are supported by command and engineering vehicles. The high speed of the missiles is hoped to make them capable of evading the heavy missile, gun and laser defences on China's island fortress stepping stones between Vietnam and the Philippines. Dark Eagle is already three years late after a series of cost blowouts, testing delays and technical difficulties. But the US Army said in a recent press release that the Talisman Sabre deployment had 'validated' its capabilities, including that of communicating with its command centre while travelling over the horizon at hypersonic speeds. 'The Dark Eagle is truly ready to go,' Dark Eagle Bravo Battery commander Captain Jennifer Lee said in an army statement. Wedge diplomacy The deployment of Dark Eagle to Australia during the Prime Minister's visit to Beijing has drawn the Chinese Communist Party's ire. 'What makes us alert and concerned is that there seems to be an increasingly evident rift or divergence between Canberra's diplomatic and military spheres,' Mr Chen told the SCMP. The Albanese Government says it is pursuing a policy of engagement with China, while at the same time addressing increasing security tensions in South East Asia. 'I'm afraid that … the main intention of the US (is) to exert a certain deterrence against China, to demonstrate the unity and interoperability of its alliances, as well as the credibility of its stated security commitment to the region – to project this posture and attitude,' Mr Xin said. Several participants in the Talisman Sabre exercise are concerned for their own security in the face of Beijing's aggressive territorial claims. Japan is experiencing increasingly frequent Chinese military and civil incursions into the waters around its Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. And the Philippines is engaged in an almost daily struggle to maintain its sovereignty and access to parts of the Spratly Islands, a few hundred kilometres off its shores. And Australia, which has been part of an international policing effort in the South China Sea since the end of World War II, has had several dangerous encounters with Chinese aircraft and warships there in recent years. Beijing claims ownership of the entire East and South China Seas, despite UN treaties dividing the waters according to agreed formulas between their coastal states. China now has the world's largest navy, a modern and growing air force, and an arsenal of advanced missiles designed to attack US aircraft carrier battle groups. In response, the US has been responding to calls by its allies – Japan, the Philippines and Australia – to strengthen its own defensive posture along what is dubbed the First Island Chain. This string of islands between Japan and Papua New Guinea is what Beijing has declared to be its primary sphere of influence. Beijing reacted angrily earlier this year when the Philippines invited US anti-ship missile batteries to exercise on its shores. Japan's plans to buy similar missiles have also been met with ire. It will conduct a joint war game with the US in September, designed to test allied abilities to defend its remote Sakishima Islands from air and sea attack.
Sydney Morning Herald
12 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Recognising Palestine is a distraction. We need sanctions to stop Israel killing my people
These jets are destroying and obliterating Gaza. It is the bare minimum that we cease exporting these parts to Israel, along with the armoured steel used in Israeli armoured vehicles. Instead, Defence Minister Richard Marles declares that we are an F-35 country while seeking to recognise the state whose extermination his government, by its failure to stop exports, participates in. Loading The reality is that Israel acts with impunity because of the ongoing support it receives from governments like Australia. The same impunity that allowed my grandparents' expulsion in 1948, that sustains the occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza, that today enables the deliberate starvation of a population. For nearly two years, I have watched bombs fall on hospitals and schools. I have seen my family members killed. I felt alone as I saw videos of screaming children on my screen and the world had abandoned us. I was enraged when Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a complete siege on the Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024, and declared that the people of Gaza, my people, my family, would be treated as 'animals' – and the world failed to stop it. 'We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,' Gallant said. Israel's response to the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, has indeed been wildly disproportionate and a violation of international law. I have listened to leaders issue hollow words as the massacres escalated: the invasion of Gaza, the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab by 335 bullets, the flour massacre, the tent massacre in Rafah, the killing of more than 60,000 people. The crimes grew. The condemnations got louder. The actions stayed the same. Loading Israel will not be stopped by speeches or hand-wringing. It will only be stopped by cutting off supplies to its military killing machine: sanctions, an arms embargo, an end to trade with this regime. Indeed, this is the bare minimum that Australia must do to meet its legal obligations to prevent and punish Israel for this genocide. This is not abstract for me. I carry the grief of generations, and I get messages from family in Gaza begging us not to stop protesting against this atrocity. I will not. Our movement is being heard. The pressure is rising. The government is scrambling; not out of principle, but because the people are demanding it. In 2003, the Howard government rejected the mass opposition in the streets and went on to invade Iraq, leaving millions dead in war and occupation, for nothing. The Albanese government must reflect on its legacy, on how it would like to be remembered: a government that serves the interests and desires of its people, or one complicit in a genocide. Loading History is watching. Lives are hanging in the balance. Recognition is not enough. It never has been. Only action can end a genocide. On August 24, 2025, we will be in the streets again as part of a massive Nationwide March for Palestine. And we will not stop.
