Scott Morrison to call for unity in China challenge before G7 in London

Australia must band together to meet the challenge of a rising China, Scott Morrison will tell an audience before the G7 summit.

Australia must band together with like-minded countries to keep the peace, maintain a stable world order safe for freedom, and meet the challenge of a rising China in a “time of great uncertainty not seen since the 1930s”.

That’s the strong message Prime Minister Scott Morrison will deliver in a speech on Wednesday to the Perth USAsia Centre as he makes his way to Cornwall, England, for the G7 summit.

Mr Morrison is expected to say that “the risks of miscalculation and conflict are growing” and that “we must intensify our co-operation with others to meet the complex security challenges we face.”

Among those challenges, Mr Morrison will say, include “the global pandemic, the recession it has caused and the business led global recovery the world needs, to restore lives and livelihoods, and the many competing models for global and national economic restoration.”

As well, there is “rapid military modernisation, tension over territorial claims, heightened economic coercion, through to enhanced disinformation, foreign interference and cyber threats, enabled by new and emerging technologies” to worry about.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is on his way to the G7 conference. Picture: Getty Images

The prime minister will also back in Mr Biden’s effort to identify the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Biden had called off an investigation into the pandemic’s origins launched by the Trump administration.

However, Mr Biden has asked his intelligence agencies to restart their work and offer their opinion as to whether the coronavirus is man-made or emerged naturally in the face of increasing evidence it may have been developed as a result of experiments at the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology.

And foreshadowing what he will speak about with world leaders in the UK and Europe, Mr Morrison is expected say that “Our challenge is nothing less than to reinforce, renovate and buttress a world order that favours freedom.”

The military efforts of China will be on the agenda.

This freedom, Mr Morrison will say, means liberal democracies, pluralistic societies, the rule of law, and open, business-led economies that are able to trade with one another in a rules-based economy.

And in a not so veiled swipe at China, the prime minister will also push for strengthening and reforming the World Trade Organisation to prevent “economic coercion” of the sort Australian exporters have recently suffered at the hands of Beijing.

Mr Morrison will also meet US President Joe Biden. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Morrison will also look forward to his first face-to-face meeting with US president Joe Biden, whose administration is understood to be looked on favourably by the government for its stance on China and continued focus on the Indo-Pacific region.

Australia is part of the solution to the many confounding challenges that the world faces today,” he will say.

“It is in our national interest to be part of that solution.

“I will carry from Australia our distinctive Australian voice. Clear and direct. Positive and constructive.

“Respectful of others and, at the same time, confident of who we are – our values, our agency and our capability to address the many challenges we face, old and new.”