Labor ‘silent’ on East Timor deal with China, says Simon Birmingham

Federal opposition demands the Albanese government reveal when it first knew that Beijing and Dili were elevating diplomatic ties.

Xanana Gusmao meets Xi Jinping in Hangzhou on Saturday. Picture: AFP

The federal opposition has demanded the Albanese government reveal when it first knew China and East Timor were elevating their diplomatic ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and what the security implications could be for Australia.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the weekend agreement between Dili and Beijing in China’s eastern city of Huangzhou was a potent “reminder of the intense strategic competition” for influence in the region.

“It is notable that the Albanese government has been silent about the implications of this agreement, in contrast to their pre-election posturing on similar matters,” Senator Birmingham told The Australian, referring to Labor’s criticism of the former Morrison government after Solomon Islands signed its 2022 security pact with Beijing. The then Labor opposition claimed the government had “dropped the ball” on the Pacific and has since accused it of diminishing Australia’s influence in the region.

Senator Birmingham said it should be a national priority to ensure Australia was “as close a partner as any other nation is to Timor Leste”, referring to East Timor by its Portuguese-language name.

Simon Birmingham says the Albanese government should be transparent. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Yet while Australia had comprehensive strategic partnerships with both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, it did not have one with East Timor.

“The Albanese government should be transparent about when they became aware of this agreement being negotiated and signed, whether they’ve had any briefings on it and what the implications are for Australia,” he said.

Questions put by The Australian to Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Monday were referred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which said in a statement the government was “aware that East Timor and China have announced an agreement to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership”.

“This is a matter for East Timor and China. Australia respects East Timor’s sovereignty and ability to make its own choices,” it said.

In fact, Dili’s decision to elevate ties with Beijing is very much an issue for Australia also given East Timor’s geographic proximity, and broader concerns over China’s push to build influence in the Pacific. The CSP commits the two countries to closer military engagement, and Beijing to greater investment in Timor’s infrastructure, healthcare, food security and fishing grounds, which border ­Australia. That will inevitably lead to a far greater Chinese presence in East Timor – 680km from ­Darwin.

China’s move to strengthen ties with East Timor also comes amid rising anxiety within the impoverished country of 1.4 million people over a looming “fiscal cliff” as the government spends down the petroleum wealth fund, leaving it desperate for investors to help it push its Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields into production.

East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta sought to assuage concerns over its elevated partnership with China on Sunday, telling Turkish television TRT: “We are not aligned with China.”

“We have a very good relationship with China, as we have a great relationship with Japan, South Korea, with the US, Australia, New Zealand and with all the European countries,” he said.

But, he added, it was a “bit silly” of Western nations to look upon China as an enemy.

A joint statement issued by China’s Xi Jinping and Timor’s Xanana Gusmao at the weekend declared Dili’s “firm adherence to the one-China principle”, its acknowledgment that Taiwan was an “an inalienable part of the Chinese territory”, and its opposition to “any form of Taiwan independence”.

Mr Ramos Horta told TRT that while “Taiwan is part of China”, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan “would be extraordinarily detrimental for peace” and a “totally unthinkable scenario”.

Asked if East Timor would cut ties with Beijing if it were to invade Taiwan, however, he said: “No.”