Nation cannot afford to be naive in face of axis of evil

Beijing’s promise to lift its last major trade restriction against Australia, to end the ban on the $800m live lobster trade by the end of the year – which China never should have imposed – is welcome but overdue. Anthony Albanese, after his meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos, is talking up the move, taking credit for “our patient, calibrated and deliberate approach”. His enthusiasm is understandable. Labor estimates that lifting the ban will save the jobs of 3000 Australians, mainly in Western Australia. Since 2020 the lobster ban has cost the nation about $2bn. Trade coercion is a serious issue. And China’s additional blacklisting of Australian coal, timber, cotton, beef, barley and wine after the Morrison government quite reasonably called for an inquiry into the origins of Covid underlined Beijing’s preparedness to bully other nations.

Aside from trade, the Prime Minister’s meeting with Mr Li also covered more dangerous issues. Mr Albanese said he was direct with Mr Li about Beijing’s ­“destabilising actions in the South China Sea”. That includes the Chinese coastguard firing water cannons at Philippine vessels and China’s recent ballistic missile tests across the Pacific. The detention of Australian citizen Yang Hengjun in China for more than five years also remains a serious problem.

While Israel fighting for survival against Iran and its terrorist proxies has been at the centre of international relations for a year, the strategic situation confronting Australia in the Asia-Pacific has become more dangerous in the past year. In an alarming analysis in Inquirer, Mike Pezzullo, former deputy secretary of the Defence Department and former secretary of the Home Affairs Department, warns Australian foreign policy is naive and out of touch with the threat posed by the growing alliance of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Australia should be grateful, as he says, for the invaluable damage Israel is inflicting on Iran’s terror proxies. Australia’s support for Israel in defending itself should be stronger and clearer, as we have argued for weeks. In light of events across the past year in Israel, the Middle East, Ukraine and the Pacific, it would be foolish to discount Mr Pezzullo’s warning that the current axis of dictatorships is more powerful than the 1930s-40s axis of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy because of its global economic clout and nuclear capability. China and Russia have a deep interest in propping up Iran as a means of keeping the US pinned in the Middle East, he writes.

Nor should it be forgotten that Iran has been arming Russia against Ukraine. A month ago The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, ignoring stern Western warnings. Mr Pezzullo argues that Australia must play a more active military and diplomatic role alongside the US in countering the “emergence of a hegemon in Eurasia”. Current policy settings, supported by both major parties – apart from a few dissident ALP voices such as Paul Keating, Gareth Evans and Bob Carr – are correct. Acquiring nuclear-propelled submarines under AUKUS and increasing US combat power in northern Australia are essential foundations of much of the nation’s defence for the foreseeable future. This is no time for complacency or naivety.

The implications of the tightening axis between China, Russia and Iran are an excellent reason for Australia and other nations, as Israeli ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon wrote recently, to increase sanctions against Iran, targeting financial, military and terror networks. In the early 1930s, too many leaders sleepwalked towards disaster until it was almost too late. We cannot afford that folly. As Mr Pezzullo writes, the “grand chessboard” of Eurasia continues to be the decisive geopolitical theatre. Australians, who deeply value peace, ignore the threats it poses at our peril.