By David Crowe
Britain has vowed to “fight together” with Australia if needed in flashpoints such as the Taiwan Strait, as it steps up its warnings about threats from China, including repression, espionage and hybrid attacks.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain and Australia would deter enemies together by being more ready to fight, in some of his most assertive remarks about the risks to global security.
Britain’s HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier docked at Darwin on Thursday.Credit: Glenn Campbell
The declaration to the British media came days after Healey signed a $41 billion defence treaty with Australia to accelerate the construction of the AUKUS nuclear submarines, seen as essential to countering future trade and military threats.
“If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and the UK are nations that will fight together,” Healey told The Telegraph of London.
“We exercise together, and by exercising together and being more ready to fight, we deter better together.
“We secure peace through strength, and our strength comes from our allies.”
Healey joined UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Australia over the past three days to cement the AUKUS pact at a critical point in the deal, when the US government is reviewing the terms out of concern that it is giving up strategic assets to help its partners.
He made the comments while visiting a Royal Navy aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, while it was in Darwin to take part in the Talisman Sabre military exercises with the Australian Defence Force and others.
Healey spoke after being asked by The Telegraph what the UK was doing to help countries like Taiwan prepare for potential escalation from China, but he added that he was speaking in general terms and that the UK wanted to settle any disputes peacefully and through diplomacy.
Australians are cautious about the nature of the nation’s strategic challenge with China, with 28 per cent of voters saying in March 2023 that it and Russia pose threats that need to be confronted soon.
The results, in the Resolve Political Monitor for this masthead, found that 52 per cent thought China and Russia were threats that could be managed carefully over time.
Deterrent effect
The Resolve Political Monitor found that a clear majority of Australians did not want to side with the US against China, when asked in the days after Donald Trump won the US presidential election last November.
The respondents were asked if they believed Australia should avoid taking sides in any conflict between the US and China. The survey found that 57 per cent agreed, 16 per cent disagreed, and the remainder were unsure.
The UK has made a significant show of force with its contribution to Talisman Sabre this year, sending 3000 personnel at a time when some in the Trump administration have questioned why it should send forces to the Indo-Pacific.
The aircraft carrier was accompanied by an air-defence destroyer and a tanker.
Lammy warned on the weekend that China had to be challenged on its conduct with the UK and other countries, as he blamed it for espionage, repression in Hong Kong and helping allies such as Russia, Iran and North Korea.
China sent a naval task group close to Australian waters earlier this year.Credit: ADF
The UK Foreign Secretary echoed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese by saying the goal was to work with China while disagreeing when necessary.
“We wanted a consistent position on China where we would co-operate what we can, but we would absolutely challenge where we must,” he said.
Albanese has often said: “We should co-operate where we can, disagree where we must.”
Lammy named China’s actions in recent days, when Hong Kong authorities offered cash to anyone who would help them arrest pro-democracy activists in other countries, as an example of “transnational repression” that should stop.
“We challenge China on their espionage in the UK; we are hugely concerned about the sanctioning of members of parliament. We have big issues with transnational repression,” he said in a question-and-answer session with Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove.
“So we have very tough issues that I have raised continually with [Foreign Minister] Wang Yi and the Chinese.”
At the same time, he said, he wanted to co-operate with China on climate change, world health and trade.
Lammy said he had presented Chinese leaders with a list of their companies helping Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the war in Ukraine.
“I’ve been in Kyiv, I’ve seen the shells that have come from North Korea, killing Europeans,” he said during the remarks at the Lowy Institute on Saturday.
“I’ve seen the kit; dual-use technology supplied by the Chinese.”
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