Shorten will attend Ukraine peace summit as Zelensky makes surprise Asia visit

Senior cabinet minister Bill Shorten will represent Australia at Ukraine’s peace summit in Switzerland later this month, which President Volodymyr Zelensky billed as crucial to his country’s future in an appeal to Asia-Pacific leaders at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday.

In a last-minute surprise attendance at Asia’s top security talks, Zelensky said he was ready to hear “various proposals and thoughts” on how his country could secure sustainable peace and end Russia’s invasion, as he implored the leaders to attend the Bürgenstock conference on June 15-16.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been trying to convince world leaders to appear at his peace summit.Credit: AP

“Time is running out, and the children are growing up in the Putin-land where they are taught to hate their homeland,” he said, outlining that the summit would address nuclear security, food security, and the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

Shorten will be announced as the Albanese government’s representative at the peace summit this week. It follows a recent phone call between Zelensky and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in which the Ukrainian leader appealed for Australia to support the summit.

Russia was not invited to the peace talks, and China has declined to attend. US President Joe Biden is also expected to skip the event. Zelensky said it was disappointing that some world leaders were not attending, but told the Singapore forum that more than 100 countries had signed on.

In an earlier address to the summit on Sunday, China’s defence minister Dong Jun raised the spectre of another theatre of conflict closer to home for most attendees, as he made clear his country was prepared to use military force in pursuit of its “reunification” goal to control Taiwan and crush any push for independence.

Defence Minister Richard Marles (centre) with China’s Defence Minister Dong Jun (right) at the Shangri-La Dialogue.Credit: Bloomberg

Dong warned that anyone who “dares to separate Taiwan from China will only end up in self-destruction” and issued veiled threats to the US and its allies, in a combative speech that marked his first major appearance at a global forum since being appointed China’s defence chief in December.

“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army will remain a strong force for upholding national reunification. We will take resolute actions to curb Taiwan independence and make sure such a plot never succeeds,” Dong said, addressing the audience of senior government ministers and leading defence officials.

In remarks aimed at the United States, he accused “external interfering forces” of hollowing out the One China principle, emboldening “separatist” forces within Taiwan pushing for independence, eroding peaceful “reunification” efforts, and pursuing “illegal” contacts with the self-governed island.

“They keep testing China’s red lines. For example, the red line about official engagement with Taiwan and then arms sales to Taiwan. They’re selling a lot of weapons,” Dong said during the question and answer session.

His comments come two weeks after the inauguration of Taiwanese President William Lai, who Beijing despises for his advocacy of Taiwan’s sovereignty and democratic rights, viewing him as a “separatist” even though Lai has committed to maintaining the status quo and not pursuing formal independence.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, even though the Chinese Communist Party has never governed the island.

China’s increasing aggression towards Taiwan and its hostility towards the Philippines in the South China Sea have been key themes of the three-day summit, where the intensifying strategic rivalry between China and the US, and the prospect of this boiling over to a hot war, has been the underlying focus of the talks.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles used his speech to the summit on Saturday to call out China’s recent military drills around Taiwan and its ramming and water cannoning of Philippine vessels as a threat to global stability.

In face-to-face talks with Dong on the sidelines of the summit, Marles directly raised concerns about the dangerous tactics used by PLA in recent confrontations with the Australian navy, including last month’s incident involving a Chinese fighter jet releasing flares in the path of a navy helicopter.

On Sunday, Dong also used the platform to take a swipe at US support for the Philippines – and at Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has stridently condemned China’s aggression within Philippine waters while boosting defence ties with the US since taking office in 2022.

“China has recognised great restraint in the face of such infringements and provocations,” he said. “But there is a limit to our restraint.”

Marcos made clear his country’s own red lines at the forum, saying Chinese actions in the South China Sea that killed a Philippines citizen would be “very, very close” to an act of war, a view that, if shared by its key defence partner, would trigger US obligations under the countries’ mutual defence treaty.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.