‘Link between Chinese and Russian visions’, says EU envoy

EU ambassador to Australia Gabriele Visentin says China’s military build-up is ‘worrying’, a day after Anthony Albanese refused to describe Beijing as a national security threat.

EU ambassador to Australia Gabriele Visentin at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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EU ambassador to Australia Gab­riele Visentin says China’s military build-up is “worrying”, a day after Anthony Albanese refused to describe Beijing as a national security threat.

Mr Visentin used an address at the National Press Club in Canberra to declare security in the Indo-Pacific region was crucial to Europe.

Warning about the global influence Beijing was seeking, Mr Visentin said there was a “clear link between the Chinese and the Russian visions of what the new international rules-based order should be”.

“We have seen maybe some worrying signs of military scaling up of China,” Mr Visentin said.

“About 40 per cent of the global trade towards the EU comes from the Indo-Pacific.

“Therefore, we do have a vital interest that the Indo-Pacific remains free and open.”

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister said there was “strategic competition” in the Indo-Pacific region but would not say whether China was a national security threat to Australia.

“I think our engagement with the region and the world needs to be diplomatic, needs to be mature and needs to avoid … ­attempts to simplify what are a complex set of relationships,” he said.

His comments were offered bipartisan support from opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash.

“Conflict in our region is in no one’s interests,” Senator Cash said. “Repeated high-risk military exercises and the build-up of military capability risk increased tensions in the region, and Australia should remain firm on this point.

“Resolution of regional issues must be achieved peacefully through dialogue and without the threat or use of force or coercion.

“We support the Australian government continuing to engage with China in practical ways that advance Australia’s interests.”

In a speech in May, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Beijing was “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific”.

“It’s public that Xi (Jinping) has ordered his military to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027,” Mr Hegseth said.

“The PLA is building the military needed to do it. Training for it every day.

“Again, to be clear: any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world.

“There’s no reason to sugar-coat it.

“The threat China poses is real.

“And it could be imminent. We hope not. But it certainly could be.”