‘Peace through strength’: Marles backs Hegseth after ‘stark’ China warning

Singapore: Defence Minister Richard Marles has endorsed a blistering address by his US counterpart warning China that America stands ready to “fight and win decisively” if Beijing seeks military conflict over Taiwan.

In a strident speech to top defence officials from across the Indo-Pacific on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the region was America’s “priority theatre” and that the threat posed by China is real – and potentially imminent.

Speaking to this masthead after the address – the first major declaration of the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific policy – Marles described it as “a very clear articulation of American intent, that what they seek is peace through strength”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has backed a speech by his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, declaring America’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific and warning China posed a real and potentially imminent threat.Credit: Getty Images

“It gives us a lot to work with in terms of working with this administration ... there was a really clear focus on allies and partners,” Marles said in an interview on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Security Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence summit, in Singapore on Saturday.

“One of our key concerns is that we have witnessed with China the biggest conventional military build-up of any country since the end of the Second World War, and that has happened without strategic reassurance or transparency.”

Hegseth used his speech to send the message that the US would not instigate conflict with China or seek regime change, while reassuring allies the US was prepared to defend the region in the face of China’s increasing territorial aggression in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, saying “we will not let our allies and partners be subordinated and intimidated”.

“There’s no reason to sugar coat it. The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent,” he said. “If deterrence fails and if called upon by my commander-in-chief, we are prepared to do what the Department of Defence does best, to fight and win decisively.”

Hegseth also made clear the Trump administration would push its Asian allies to ramp up defence spending to near 5 per cent of gross domestic product, in line with commitments by NATO partners, which he claimed were spending more to combat a less formidable threat.

It’s a pressure he applied to Marles when the pair met for face-to-face talks on Friday. Marles declined to divulge what spending figure the pair discussed, but the demand would likely mean billions of dollars in extra defence funding.

Hegseth’s reassurance of the US’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific is one that many of the region’s political leaders would be seeking – but not necessarily trust.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles (left) meets US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in Singapore on Friday.Credit: AFR

In the frenzied early months of the Trump administration, trading partners have been threatened with high tariffs, crucial aid development programs have been axed, and rock-solid alliances have been rattled by signals the US is embracing a more isolationist position on the global stage.

Asked whether any of the Trump administration’s actions had shaken his faith in the reliability of the US as Australia’s foremost ally, Marles reaffirmed that the US alliance remained the cornerstone of Australia’s strategic and foreign policy.

But he added “we will say what needs to be said, even to our close ally”.

The Lowy Institute’s Susannah Patton, director of the think tank’s South-East Asia program, said while Hegseth’s speech would be well-received by allies including Australia and Japan, the “starkly confrontational tone on China won’t reassure South-East Asian countries who worry about the risk of rising tensions or conflict”.

Hegseth’s speech contrasted significantly in tone and substance to the one delivered by French President Emmanuel Macron in his address to the conference on Friday evening.

Macron warned that the intensifying rivalry between the US and China posed the greatest threat to global security, saying the two superpowers were charting a dangerous course to split global alliances into two competing camps.

“The instruction given to all the others [is] you have to choose your side. If we do so, we will kill the global order, and we will destroy methodically all the institutions we created after the Second World War in order to preserve peace,” Macron said.

He issued a rallying call for Europe and Asia to build new coalitions to reject bullying, uphold trade norms, and protect countries’ sovereignty, and to ensure they were not “collateral victims” to the “choices made by the superpowers”. It is an appeal that will resonate across the Indo-Pacific region, which feels increasingly wedged between China and America.

In a thinly veiled swipe at the Trump administration’s weakened interest in defending Ukraine, Macron denounced the view that the war was a solely European conflict, and one that was sapping resources from other arenas, saying Ukraine’s fall to Russia would undermine US attempts to deter China from seizing Taiwan.

“Allow me to say, this is a total mistake,” Macron said. “Because if we consider that Russia could be allowed to take a part of the territory of Ukraine without any restriction, without any constraint, without any reaction of the global order ... what could happen in Taiwan? What will you do the day something happens in the Philippines?”

Macron also took aim at China, saying it should do more to influence its ally North Korea against joining Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“If China doesn’t want NATO being involved in South-East Asia or in Asia, they should prevent North Korea from engaging on European soil,” he said.

Macron said global stability was being jeopardised by double standards in how the international community confronted key humanitarian challenges such as the war in Gaza and climate change.

“If we abandon Gaza, if we consider there is a free pass for Israel, even if we do condemn the terrorist attacks, we kill our own credibility ... what is at stake is clearly the global order, and what is at stake is our credibility to protect this global order,” he said.

In a break with previous years, China did not send its Defence Minister, Dong Jun, to this year’s dialogue, forgoing the potential for a bilateral meeting with the US on the sidelines of the conference as has occurred in previous years. Beijing has instead dispatched a low-level military university delegation.

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