Speaking at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra on Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia is facing its toughest international situation since the pre-WWII period.
While Morrison avoided directly linking Australia’s defense budget to China’s growing threat, He named several regions where Beijing has been embroiled in territorial disputes: on its Himalayan border with India, and in the South China Sea and East China Sea.
Morrison said the “risk of miscalculation and even conflict” was growing and called the Indo-Pacific region the “focus of the dominant global competition of our era.”
Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College (NSC) at the National University of Australia, said the new strategy was preparing for a future dominated by aggressive China and a less reliable US partner.
“This is about China’s assertive use of its power and how China has essentially abused the Covid-19 window to step up its assertiveness,” he said.
Boats, shops and satellites.
The budget increase will increase Australia’s ability to defend itself in its backyard through better-equipped naval and air forces, and by building its ammunition and fuel storage capabilities.
The government will also explore the possibility of a satellite network operated by Australia, Reduce the country’s current dependence on the US network. and extending its radar system to monitor Australia’s eastern approaches.
“That means the Australian government is convinced that it will seek a greater Chinese military presence off our east coast in the South Pacific,” said Medcalf, who helped advise on the 2016 Defense White Paper.
In June, Australia signed two bilateral military agreements with India in the “first step to deepen the defense relationship” between the two Indo-Pacific powers, as China took an increasingly aggressive approach to the region, according to statements by both. countries.
Sam Roggeveen, director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program in Sydney, said he was concerned that any move toward long-range attack capability could destabilize regional relations, especially with neighboring power and regional partner Indonesia, and further antagonize China.
“Anything we can throw at China can throw at us, and something else,” said Roggeveen.
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