‘No timeframe or conditions’ on Albanese’s visit to China

Singapore: Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says there is no timeframe or conditions on Anthony Albanese’s upcoming visit to China, signalling the Australian government was managing expectations of trade sanction relief and the release of two detained Australians.

In an interview from Seoul, where he is meeting with his Korean counterparts and Pacific Island leaders at a meeting designed to counter China’s growing ambitions in the region, Marles said Canberra would continue engaging with Beijing. Albanese announced in Hiroshima at the G7 last week that he had accepted an invitation to the Chinese capital.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“All I would say about that is we’re not about to put a timeframe on or conditions,” he said.

“Prime ministers have visited China in the past. We’re seeking to stabilise our relationship with China now, and we’re doing that in a way where we will work with China where we can and obviously disagree when we must.”

The federal opposition has called on the government to secure a guarantee that all $20 billion in trade sanctions on half a dozen industries will be lifted by Beijing before the prime minister travels. Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has also labelled the ongoing detention of Australians Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun “unacceptable”.

Albanese suggested in Hiroshima that the sanctions should be lifted, but did not link them or the release of Yang and Cheng as prerequisites for his visit to Beijing. The 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s first trip to China as prime minister in October is looming as a symbolic date for both sides. Marles indicated on Wednesday night no timeframe for the visit had been set.

Marles said alignment between the Australian and South Korean governments had never been stronger after a shift from Seoul to increase its diplomatic weight and draw its year-old conservative government closer to the United States and Japan.

“There’s a remarkable alignment between the way in which they’re thinking and the way we’re thinking to be honest,” he said. “The security of Korea lies in the collective security in the region and in the maintenance of global rules-based order.”

South Korea has historically been a laggard in the Pacific due to its own economic development and security threats from North Korea, but now joins the US, Japan and India in hosting an annual forum for the region which has drawn diplomatic and security approaches from Beijing. The area is critical to global maritime trade, supply lines and the defence strategies of the two superpowers: China and the US.

“It’s a real step up on the part of Korea to engage with the Pacific which is very welcome,” said Marles, who is also Australia’s Defence Minister.

“We are getting the hard power equations right in terms of the decisions that we have made in relation to AUKUS and nuclear-powered submarine capabilities, but the front line here has to be diplomacy and engaging with the countries of the region. I think that’s what Korea is seeking to do in a meeting of this kind.”

But the Pacific is also stricken with economic, geographic and climate vulnerabilities, making development partnerships difficult with countries spread over more than 30 million square kilometres.

“Development challenges are tough in the Pacific,” Marles said. “You are talking about small populations in remote parts of the world where building viable economies is a real challenge.”

China has been pursuing development deals across the region, particularly in infrastructure, in exchange for closer diplomatic ties with Beijing. In April last year, Beijing signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands. This year it will finish building the stadium for the Pacific Island Games in the capital Honiara.

“I think it is very important that Australia stays in the game,” said Marles. “If the quality of development assistance is good, then the rest takes care of itself.”

Marles will also look to smooth over any lingering concerns in ministerial meetings in Seoul about Australian defence procurement contract delays for millions of dollars in Korean-built infantry fighting vehicles after Australia launched its Defence Strategic Review in April.

Bill Paterson, a former Australian ambassador to South Korea, said that faced with the strategic uncertainties in its immediate neighbourhood, Korea saw value in diversifying its production base away from the Korean peninsula.

“But it may wonder whether Australia presents a reliable and attractive location,” he wrote for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Marles said he believed his South Korean counterparts understood the process Australia had gone through.

“We obviously need to be making decisions about our posture and therefore, the procurements that we make in the context of what is in our national interest, but I genuinely think they understand that,” he said.

South Korea’s military industry is surging on the back of the war in Ukraine as it looks to become one of the world’s largest arms suppliers. Its Defence Ministry said its arms sales jumped to more than $25 billion in 2022, more than doubling from $11.5 billion the year before.

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