Scott Morrison, Marise Payne fire fresh warning to Beijing amid Russia’s Ukraine invasion

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its second week, there are fresh concerns for what that could mean in Australia’s own backyard.

Australia has fired fresh warning shots at China, warning Beijing not to follow in Russia’s footsteps as the invasion of Ukraine enters its second week.

An emergency meeting of the Quad leaders – Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his US, Japanese and Indian counterparts – was called overnight amid mounting concerns about Indo-Pacific implications from the conflict.

Concerns that regional autocratic regimes – most specifically China – could follow in Russia’s footsteps in disregarding sovereignty and territorial integrity have been further heightened after Western intelligence reported Beijing had asked Moscow to delay its invasion until after the Winter Olympics.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton had earlier this week called on President Xi Jinping to pressure President Putin, saying the Chinese leader was “the only person” Moscow might listen to.

Mr Morrison on Friday cautioned against “conflating the issues of Taiwan and Ukraine” but conceded there was “real concern” about a distinctive alignment between Mr Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with his fellow Quad leaders in an emergency meeting overnight. Picture: Facebook

“Australia has a very clear understanding of the implications if China was to seek to realise its ambitions with Taiwan. Autocratic regimes don’t play by the same rules as liberal democracies,” he told 6PR.

“We’ve got to call out (this distinctive alignment). At a time when Russia is invading another country (and other countries have imposed sanctions on them), China has sought to ease trade restrictions and throw Russia a lifeline.

“We want to see the world not throw Russia a lifeline … not easing restrictions like China is. I’m not saying this to be provocative, but we have to call these things out.

“We can’t pretend that these things aren’t going on. We’ve got a clear-eyed view about what’s going on in the region.”

China's President Xi Jinping Russia's President Vladimir Putin allegedly came to an agreement that the Ukrainian invasion would not begin until the end of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Picture: Alexander Nemenov / AFP

Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne was asked about the reports of invasion collusion and said that was ultimately for “China to respond to”.

“But to be very clear, any collaboration on this illegal, unjustified and unprovoked Russian invasion would be deeply concerning,” she told 4BC.

“And similarly, we are concerned by apparent increasing co-operation between authoritarian regimes around the world.

“Members of the UN Security Council should be loudly and clearly saying that this invasion is not lawful and this invasion should be condemned.”

The overnight Quad leaders meeting was in part brought about because India had abstained from two key United Nations votes seeking to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Morrison was unequivocal in differentiating China and India on Friday morning, saying India was on the side of the West.

“India is seeking to ensure this violence ends … They are not throwing Russia (any) lifelines,” he said.

Originally published as Scott Morrison, Marise Payne fire fresh warning to Beijing amid Russia’s Ukraine invasion