Canberra to enlist ASEAN in China row

Australia will step up co-operation with Southeast Asian nations to counter rising strategic threats from China.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne. Picture: AAP

Australia will step up co-operation with Southeast Asian nations to counter rising strategic threats from China, vowing to work with them to fight disinformation and strengthen regional stability.

As Beijing ramped up its propaganda war on Australia, Foreign Minister Marise Payne met with Association of Southeast Asian Nations counterparts to discuss growing threats.

She said during a video conference on Tuesday night that COVID-19 was compounding strategic risks and the region must work together to avoid a prolonged health crisis and economic stagnation.

“It is critical, in the current context, that we expand our co-operation on strategic challenges,” Senator Payne said.

She committed $23m to help ASEAN partners to bolster their health security and support their economic recovery. The funding includes $5m for health security, a $10m boost for maritime and cyber security, and $4m to tackle human trafficking and help vulnerable migrant workers.

“As ASEAN’s longest-standing dialogue partner, we will stand together through this pandemic, just as we have in past crises,” Senator Payne said.

Canberra sees ASEAN as vital to a collective push back against bad behaviour by China, which prefers to use its economic and strategic weight to stand over countries individually.

Senator Payne’s comments followed a push back by the 10-nation regional bloc this week over Beijing’s increasingly aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea and its territorial claims, which violate international law.

In a significant move, ASEAN cited the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as the only legal basis to resolve maritime and territorial disputes in the region. Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and The Philippines have disputes with China in the contested maritime area, where Beijing refuses to comply with a UNCLOS ruling that its claims are illegitimate.