RAN to follow US lead on navigation rights

Australia is likely to conduct a freedom of navigation exercise in the South China Sea after the US revealed a similar ­operation.

USS Curtis Wilbur, right, during a joint exercise off central Queensland, Operation Pacific Protector. Picture: Graham Crouch

Australia is likely to conduct a freedom of navigation exercise in the South China Sea in the coming months after the US revealed that it had carried out a similar ­operation.

The USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island created by China in the Spratly Islands chain to assert its freedom of navigation rights.

Under international law, artificial islands cannot generate territorial rights and international shipping is free to sail within the 12 nautical mile zone. The Chinese, however, demand that inter­national ships gain permission in advance for such voyages.

The American ship also sailed through waters claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan to make it clear it was asserting a general principle.

Defence Minister Marise Payne issued a statement supporting the US exercise. She said the US had operated in a way that was “consistent with international law” and that Australia supported freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

She added that Australia had a national interest in the continued international recognition of such rights.

The statement makes it clear that Canberra strongly supports the US action and is willing to do so publicly and repeatedly.

Senator Payne’s statement repeated the words she used in supporting a similar exercise carried out by the Americans in October.

However, there was a crucial difference. Unlike in October, Senator Payne yesterday said: “As we have done for many decades, Australian vessels and aircraft will continue to exercise rights under international law to freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight, including in the South China Sea.”

This is consistent with The Australian’s revelation last week that the Turnbull government has not yet decided whether and when to undertake such an exercise.

As The Australian also revealed, Australian ships and planes have intentionally been flying and sailing nearer to areas that the Chinese claim and where the presence of foreign ships or planes routinely causes a Chinese protest.

So far Australia has not yet sailed or flown within 12 nautical miles of an artificial Chinese island in the South China Sea. Senator Payne’s statement yesterday also omitted a statement she made in October that Australia was not involved in the current activities.

Opposition defence spokesman Stephen Conroy backed the US activities as “an important affirmation of international law and norms from which we all benefit’’.

“As a maritime trading ­nation, Australia has a direct interest in freedom of navigation and is the beneficiary of an international system of laws and norms — a system that is under increasing pressure in the South China Sea,’’ Senator Conroy said.

“I believe Australia and other like-minded countries also have an obligation to act in support of the rules-based international system in the South China Sea. It is important that these actions not be directed at any single claimant — consistent with Australia’s long-standing approach of not taking a position on the competing claims.’’

He said the Turnbull government continued to prevaricate “and refuses to provide a proper account of what our military assets are doing in the South China Sea’’.

The timing of the exercise is significant. It is only three months since the last such exercise. Washington sources said the Pentagon had been keen to conduct exercises relatively frequently, perhaps three or four times a year, so that they became routine and made clear the US commitment to freedom of navigation. The South China Sea figured in Malcolm Turnbull’s discussions on his recent trip to the US.

The Chinese ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, said the US freedom of navigation exercise was “a very serious provocation, politically and militarily”.

However, the Americans are abiding by the law and giving ­effect to the law. The journey of the USS Curtis Wilbur will not be the last such voyage to take place.

And it is at least an even-money bet that an Australian vessel will make such a voyage.