Risk of conflict heightening in Indo-Pacific: Australian PM

Unveiling the 2020 Defence Strategic Update, Prime Minister Scott Morrison today announced a 270 billion Australian dollars (A$) 10-year defence plan. Senior Journalist Smita Sharma reports on the significant shifts in the strategic environment as Morrison pointed out at the tense ties and contest for supremacy between nations.

New Delhi:Amid global concerns over Chinese aggression from LAC to the South China Sea, Australia has updated its Strategic Defence Framework of 2016 to deter actions targeted against the country’s interests and importantly ‘respond with credible military force, when required’.

Unveiling the 2020 Defence Strategic Update, Prime Minister Scott Morrison today announced a 270 billion Australian dollars (A$) 10- year defence plan which includes for the first time, land, sea, and air-based long-range and hypersonic strike missiles for Canberra. At the heart of this new Defence Update is the assessment that tensions over territorial claims are arising across the Indo-Pacific region.

“Our region will not only shape our future, increasingly though, it is the focus of the dominant global contest of our age. This is the setting for it. Tensions over territorial claims are rising across the Indo-Pacific region, as we have seen recently on the disputed border between India and China, and the South China Sea, and the East China Sea. The risk of miscalculation and even conflict is heightening,” said Prime Minister Morrison.

“Disinformation and foreign interference have been enabled and accelerated by new and emerging technologies. And, of course, terrorism hasn't gone away and the evil ideologies that underpin it, and they remain a tenacious threat. State sovereignty is under pressure, as are rules and norms and the stability that these provide,” he cautioned further.

Pointing to the tense ties and contest for supremacy between the United States and China, Morrison underlined that other stakeholders cannot remain just bystanders as the strategic environment witnesses significant shifts.

“It's not just China and the United States that will determine whether our region stays on path for free and open trade, investment and cooperation that has underpinned stability and prosperity, the people-to-people relationships that bind our region together. Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, the countries of South-East Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Pacific all have agency, choices to make, parts to play and of course, so does Australia,” he remarked.

The new framework is meant to achieve an important pivot to all Defence planning, including force structure, force generation, international engagement and operations, developing capabilities in areas such as longer-range strike weapons, cyber- capabilities, and area denial systems.

Australia, a key partner in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad with Japan, India, and US is now expected to undertake the biggest regeneration of its Navy since the Second World War and transition to a fifth-generation Air Force including the highly advanced F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter. The plan seeks to acquire sophisticated maritime long-range missiles, air-launch strike, and anti-ship weapons, as well as additional land-based weapons.

“We don't seek to entangle or intimidate or silence our neighbours. We respect their sovereignty. We champion it. And we expect others to respect ours. Sovereignty means self-respect, freedom to be who we are, ourselves, independence, free-thinking. We will never surrender this. Never,” said Morrison at a time when China has threatened Australia and New Zealand with serious trade consequences for seeking a probe into the origins of coronavirus and the Wuhan link.

Meanwhile, close on the heels of grave cyber attacks reportedly from China, Australia has also rolled out its largest-ever investment in its cybersecurity capabilities with a new $1.35 billion investment expected over the next decade.

“Now, the Indo-Pacific is where we live and we want an open, sovereign Indo-Pacific, free from coercion and hegemony. We want a region where all countries, large and small, can engage freely with each other and guided by international rules and norms,” said Morrison days after India and Australia added more muscle to their defence ties following the first virtual summit between the two Prime Ministers.