G7 should boost security of liberal democracies

Scott Morrison’s attendance at the Group of Seven leaders summit in Cornwall and his first meeting with US President Joe Biden are timely opportunities to advance the nation’s interests. It will be regrettable if the in-principle agreement on the Australia-UK free-trade deal does not materialise during the Prime Minister’s visit to Britain. But our negotiators must take the time to ensure it is as beneficial as possible. Even more crucial matters are at stake in coming days. As Geoff Chambers reports, Mr Morrison has warned growing strategic tensions in the Indo-Pacific are threatening stability across the globe. Ahead of the G7 summit, he noted that the world was “living in a time of great uncertainty not seen outside of wartime since the 1930s”. Mr Morrison and Mr Biden will meet on Saturday, focusing on defence and strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific and pushing for Australia and the US to ramp up land force co-operation and joint development of critical technologies. Mr Morrison has a plan to use his invitation to the summit well, to help achieve greater alignment with Australia’s international partners. A new era of co-operation “not seen for 30 years” is needed to ensure a rules-based system that supports “peace, prosperity and the aspirations for all sovereign nations”.

Those priorities include: supporting open societies, open economies and a rules-based order, upholding international maritime law and fixing the World Trade Organisation; building up sovereign capabilities and resilience through trusted supply chains; and liberal democracies working for the common good. After landing in Britain, Mr Morrison backed host Boris Johnson’s push to vaccinate people in developing nations by the end of next year, announcing Australia would commit 20 million doses to assist the British effort. Mr Morrison’s priorities go to the heart of Australia’s strategic security.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian on the eve of the summit, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has raised a worrying spectre for Australia and the region. According to Dr Wu, China is cultivating Pacific Island nations with a view to using them as military launch pads for unofficial “grey zone” operations against Australia. Under such a scenario – which has been employed in other parts of the region such as the South China Sea – China could deploy flotillas of armed, unmarked fishing vessels as tensions escalate. Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings shares Dr Wu’s concerns. Australia would need “a robust response directly at sea”, he says, as well as a diplomatic approach.

Mr Jennings’s comments go to another important aspect of Mr Morrison’s overseas visit — his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the slow progress of the $90bn plan to build 12 French Attack-class submarines in Adelaide. On Friday we reported Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s pragmatic decision ordering that all six of Australia’s ageing Collins subs be rebuilt to extend their life for another 10 years. But as Cameron Stewart reports on Saturday, the shipbuilder who led construction of the Collins-class subs has warned that the Morrison government’s timeline for extending their life is too ambitious. When we can least afford it in strategic terms, Australia risks a serious capability gap in its submarine fleet by the 2030s, the shipbuilder warns, as the navy awaits the first of the French Attack-class boats from 2035. The warning comes in a report to Mr Dutton’s office by leading naval shipbuilders, including former Collins-class shipbuilder Hans Ohff, the builder of the navy’s Anzac frigates John White, former navy commodore Paul Greenfield and former senior public servant with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Jon Stanford. They paint a dire picture of Australia’s likely inability to maintain a potent submarine deterrent in coming years.

As Mr Morrison says, growing strategic competition between the US and China “does not have to lead to conflict”. To further that ambition, the G7 summit is an idea springboard for the leading democracies to agree on concrete steps to forge a new era of co-operation between nations to uphold the international order. One example, as we reported during the week, is Mr Morrison call for democracies to band together to prevent “economic coercion” from global actors such as China over issues of protectionism and trade. A well-functioning WTO that sets clear rules, arbitrates disputes objectively and efficiently, and penalises bad behaviour can be a powerful tool to counter economic coercion, he believes. China’s punitive 80 per cent tariffs on Australian barley and barriers to other Australian goods such as wine, wood, meat, coal, cotton and lobsters are costing Australia about $20bn a year, although new markets are being found. While the government is confident it will win a WTO case against the barley tariff, barley farmers are expecting a lengthy standoff, while the barriers cost them about $500m a year. In the interests of global trade, WTO processes need to be swift and efficient. Writing in The Telegraph in London, Mr Morrison set the scene for the G7: “Look to the years immediately following the Second World War” when US president Harry Truman called for the creation of new conditions “in which (the US) and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free of coercion”. In a vastly different world, that must be the G7’s overarching aim.