Scott Morrison doesn’t want to choose between US and China
Scott Morrison has gravely warned Australia does not want to choose between the US and China, as tensions flare, while saying false assumptions were “needlessly deteriorating relationships”.
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Australia does not want to choose between the US and China, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling for “more room to move” and more nuance from superpowers.
The rise of China did not have to lead to a new Cold War mentality, Mr Morrison said as he warned falsely assuming Australia’s actions were part of competition between Beijing and the US “needlessly deteriorates relationships”.
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It follows China’s outburst against Australia last week, unveiling a laundry list of sins it claimed Australia had committed against it, while accusing Canberra of having “poisoned the relationship”.
Mr Morrison also declared the world had been “hit with an economic meteor in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
It was part of a landmark speech delivered via videolink from the Lodge to the British Policy Exchange, following an address from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
He was receiving the inaugural Grotius Prize for “support of the international rules based order”.
The Prime Minister said the competition between the US and China was different to the Cold War but came with its own challenges, particularly in Australia’s region.
“Like other sovereign nations in the Indo-Pacific, our preference is not to be forced into binary choices,” Mr Morrison said.
“Australia desires an open, transparent and mutually beneficial relationship with China as our largest trading partner …
“Equally we are absolutely committed to our enduring alliance with the United States, anchored in our shared world view, liberal democratic values and market-based economic model.”
Mr Morrison said Australia would continue to pursue its own national interests, but its actions were often “wrongly seen and interpreted” by some through the lens of competition between China and the US.
“This is false and needlessly deteriorates relationships,” he said.
“If we are to avoid a new era of polarisation, then in the decades ahead there must be a more nuanced appreciation of individual states’ interests in how they deal with the major powers.
“We all need a bit more room to move”.
The relationship between Canberra and Beijing has deteriorated significantly this year, with a series of trade actions launched against Australia.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian last week released a list of issues he claimed hurt the relationship, including Australia backing the inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic; speaking out about democracy in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in Xinjian; linking cyber attacks in Australia to China; and introducing foreign influence laws.
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