Australia ‘to join four-nation response’ to South China Sea provocation
Australia is set to join the US, Japan and The Philippines in joint naval exercises in the South China Sea this weekend in a show of military support for Manila.
Australia is set to join the US, Japan and The Philippines in joint naval exercises in the South China Sea this weekend in a show of military support for Manila as it faces escalating Chinese maritime aggression in its waters, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.
Sunday’s drills off The Philippines’ island of Palawan would be the first full-scale exercise involving all four countries aimed at enhancing interoperability, and comes days after President Ferdinand Marcos junior revealed his government was co-ordinating with allies and partners on a counter-response to Chinese attacks on Philippines’ vessels.
The Royal Australian Navy’s Warramunga frigate will join the four-nation drill along with an Australian aircraft, Japanese destroyer and several US and Philippines naval assets inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported, citing “multiple government sources”.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines confirmed in a statement that the Warramunga arrived in Palawan port this week, while the Australian Defence Force said the frigate was on an “Indo-Pacific regional presence deployment”.
A spokesman for the ADF did not confirm the activities but said it “engages with international partners through a robust program of bilateral and multilateral military training exercises and activities throughout the year”.
Reports of the four-nation exercise will raise hackles in Beijing just hours after US President Joe Biden spoke with China’s Xi Jinping by phone, their first conversation since November.
The White House has raised its engagement with China in recent months and on Wednesday described the leaders’ conversation, which covered US-China relations, South China Sea provocations, the Gaza and Ukraine wars, North Korea’s nuclear threats and Taiwan, as “candid and constructive”.
Sunday’s naval drills are being billed as part of a more “robust assertion” of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy which aims to rally allies and partners to counteract Beijing’s growing regional influence.
The US President hosts a trilateral summit with Marcos Jnr and Japan’s Fumio Kishida next week.
Whether all of that is enough to counter China’s growing regional influence remains to be seen given the surprising results this week of the latest State of Southeast Asia survey by Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, which annually gauges the opinions of private and public sector leaders, academics and researchers across Southeast Asia.
More than half of respondents said they would prefer to align with China over the US if forced to choose between superpowers, up from 38.9 per cent last year.
Philippines respondents were the least likely to favour China, however, reflecting heightened tensions between the two nations.
Lowy Institute Southeast Asia program director Susannah Paton said Australia’s participation in the drills reflects the concern in Canberra over the escalating situation in the South China Sea.
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