Scott Morrison, Biden set ties for rising Sino challenges

Scott Morrison and Joe Biden will focus on deepening ties and ensuring the US-­Australia partnership is fit-for-purpose, at their first face-to-face meeting.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison lands in the United Kingdom ahead of the G7 Summit in Cornwall. Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO

Scott Morrison and Joe Biden will focus on deepening military ties and ensuring the US-­Australia defence and security partnership remains fit-for-purpose in a more challenging Indo-Pacific strategic environment at their first face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G7 leaders’ summit in Britain.

The Prime Minister told The Weekend Australian his key message going into the summit in ­Cornwall was that “no country in our region should have to ­compromise their values or interests in order to live peacefully together”.

With the US signalling it will use the G7 to encourage other nations to take a harder line against Chinese economic ­coercion, Mr Morrison provided a reassurance that growing strategic competition between the US and China did “not have to lead to conflict”.

He also called for a new era of co-operation between nation states to uphold international order, which he warned was under threat from a range of complex new challenges that had created a sense of uncertainty “not seen outside of wartime since the 1930s”.

Touching down at the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire after his flight was diverted four hours northeast of Cornwall due to heavy fog, Mr Morrison announced that Australia would commit 20 million doses to assist the British effort to vaccinate the world by the end of 2022.

“These 20 million doses will go to support doses in our region, to ensure that we continue to ­exercise our responsibility,” he said. “I’ve had discussions in ­recent weeks with Pacific leaders and leaders in Southeast Asia and I know that’s greatly ­appreciated that Australia will be doing its bit in our region, but also as part of a global effort.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie Johnson, US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden ahead of the G7 Summit. Picture: Getty

Mr Morrison and Mr Biden are expected to use their meeting to discuss climate change, new energy technologies and how the US and Australia could best respond to new cyber and technological threats posed by ­nations including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Both leaders are pushing for Australia and the US to ramp up land force co-operation and the joint development of critical technologies. Defence Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday proposed an expansion of the US marine presence in the Northern Territory and a stronger American naval presence in Australia.

Mr Morrison said he welcomed the “great friendship and support we have from our allies” and that he was looking forward to “pursuing our relationship when it comes to our defence co-operation, our technology co-operation, the work we’re doing on energy technology and critical supply chains around the world”.

The bilateral meeting with Mr Biden comes ahead of an AUSMIN meeting involving Mr Dutton, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and US counterparts Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken.

Mr Morrison and Mr Biden, who met online in March for the inaugural Quadrilateral Security Dialogue leaders’ meeting, are also likely to discuss the potential to expand partnerships around air and space.

The Weekend Australian understands that, contingent on Covid-19 restrictions and outbreaks, the pair will also discuss a potential leaders’ visit, with plans afoot to hold an in-person Quad meeting in Washington DC later this year.

Mr Morrison, who met Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday night on the way to Cornwall, is aiming to hold bilateral meetings with key Indo-Pacific leaders, Japan’s Yoshihide Suga and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, at the G7. He will also meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will step down later this year, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Queen, who will make a rare appearance outside the royal bubble to appear at the G7 summit, will meet Mr Morrison at Windsor Castle next week. The 95-year-old monarch was due to travel to Cornwall on Friday as part of an official reception for ­arriving G7 leaders.

As world leaders assembled in the Cornish seaside resort village of Carbis Bay, hopes of finalising an in-principle agreement on the UK-Australia free-trade deal ahead of the Prime Minister’s meeting with Boris Johnson in London next week were waning.

British and Australian trade negotiators have spent the week holding rolling meetings but were still no closer to ironing out ­differences, with the Morrison government not inclined to ­accept a deal that fell below the national interest.

In an opinion piece in the UK Telegraph on Friday, Mr Morrison said it was vital to ensure a “strategic balance” in the Indo-Pacific that “favours freedom and allows us to be who we are – a vibrant liberal democracy, an outward-looking open economy (and) a free people determined to shape our own destiny in accordance with national ­sovereignty”.

He said managing the strategic competition between China and the US was critical and did not have to result in conflict, although it did not justify coercion.

“We need all nations to participate in the global system in ways that foster development and co-operation,” Mr Morrison said.

“Australia stands ready to engage in this dialogue with all countries, including China, with whom we have a comprehensive strategic partnership and free-trade agreement.”

Mr Morrison, attending as a G7-plus member, argued the summit was taking place within a “liberal, rules-based order … under renewed strain” with the pandemic, the recession and international recovery representing the most serious international set of challenges since the 1930s.

He said a new era of co-operation “not seen for 30 years” was needed to face those challenges.

Ahead of the G7 summit, Mr Biden met Mr Johnson and signed a new Atlantic Charter modelled on the joint statement by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 setting out their goals for the post-war world.

The difficulties created by Covid were highlighted with the announcement of more than 14,000 new infections across Britain in the two days leading up to the summit, forcing world leaders into a Cornish bubble. A hotel that had been preparing to ­accommodate media and security officials was forced to shut following an outbreak among staff.