In the U.S. this week in an attempt to drum up sales of his meagre memoir, Scott Morrison meets with Donald Trump in New York in between Trump's criminal trial hearings.
Heaven knows how indiscrete Morrison has been during this conversation. His own party was worried about the national security risk he may have represented in 2021 in relation to this AUKUS submarine deal.
CEO former Australian citizen Rupert Murdoch, News Corp:
The Australian, 14 March 2023
‘It’s more than one plus one plus one’, from the pen of Canberra Bureau Chief Joe Kelly
…..“The sum of the three is more than one plus one plus one in this case,” Mr Albanese said.
“And I think that the co-operation we’ve had is really exciting. “We see that this is an investment in our capability. At the same time, of course, we’re investing in our relationships in the region as well.
“And I’ve been talking with other leaders in the region, as well, explaining our position. And it’s been well-received and understood why we’re doing this. It builds on our long-term relationship.” Mr Sunak said the deal was “about our commitment to the Pacific region, which, even though it’s geographically a long way from where we are, it’s important in a way to demonstrate our commitment to the values that we hold dear as countries.” Mr Albanese began his day with a walk alongside Chief of Navy Mark Hammond, declaring: “It’s a new dawn in San Diego, and it will be a new dawn in Australian defence policy tomorrow.” Before his trip to the US for the AUKUS announcement, Mr Sunak expressed concern about China’s future direction and role in the international system.
“It’s a country with fundamentally different values to ours, and I think over the last few years it’s become increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad,” the British Prime Minister was quoted as saying in a report in The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s behaviour suggests it has the intention – but also its actions show it is interested in reshaping the world order. And that’s the crux of it.” Mr Sunak told The Wall Street Journal that threats to security were increasing. “The world has become a more volatile place,” he said. “What we need to do as allies is out-cooperate and out-compete our adversaries.” …..
‘Epoch-defining challenge’, from the pen of North Asia correspondent Will Glasgow
The hugely expensive project to acquire “world-leading” nuclear submarine capability – likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars – is a key plank in the response by America and its allies to the massive build-up of the capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army over the past decade. Beijing last week further ramped up military spending by more than 7 per cent to more than $330bn. There is widespread support for the AUKUS project in Taipei. Lo Chih-Cheng, a member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said Taiwan’s government saw the security pact as part of a crucial effort to change Beijing’s calculus on ever using force in an attempt to bring the self-ruled island under Communist Party rule.
“Your decision to acquire nuclear submarines and to build up strength in your defence capabilities is conducive to redressing the imbalance that is happening now in the region,” said Mr Lo, a government member of Taiwan’s foreign affairs and national security committee. “We may not be able to stop China’s continuing military expansion, but it is imperative for us to stop the continuation of this kind of military imbalance.” Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), also welcomed the submarine acquisition. “We welcome measures to address the future balance of power in the western Pacific. And we would like to see a stronger Western alliance in terms of military capability and technology,” said the KMT’s top international adviser Alexander Huang….
The Age, 14 March 2023:
A partnership on the front foot, from the pen of International editor Peter Hartcher
Australia-India relations are thriving, driven by a mutual mistrust of China and shared economic self-interest.
Among the countries this week raising their voices against Australia's plan for nuclear-propelled submarines, you will not hear India, the world's most populous nation and fastest growing major economy….
"India did not object to AUKUS when it was announced," explains a leading Indian strategic analyst, C. Raja Mohan, because "it had no reason to. Stronger deterrence against China on the east is welcome for India," says the senior fellow of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
If you wondered why Australia's relations with India are suddenly booming - beyond the stale comforts of curry, cricket and the Commonwealth - the shared imperative of deterring the Chinese Communist Party's adventurism is key. That is the only reason Australia is arming itself with nuclear-propelled submarines…..
CEO former Liberal federal treasurer Peter Costello, Nine Entertainment Co:
Australians should take special heed of the analysis of the noted defence strategist Peter Jennings and then draw the exact opposite conclusion from his about what should be done.
Jennings, who for 10 years was executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and was a deputy secretary of the Department of Defence, was one of five defence experts lined up by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in a series titled Red Alert. Its aim was to provide a more public discussion about Australia's defence needs than what will come out of the secretive Defence Strategic Review. And it was widely taken up by other media.
The five's conclusion was to expect war with China sooner rather than later because China was determined to take over Taiwan by force if necessary. The US would then move militarily to defend Taiwan and Australia would have to join in.
Jennings pointed out that in the first 72 hours, China could fire missiles (with or without nuclear warheads) on the naval fleet bases in Sydney and Perth, on RAAF bases near Brisbane and Darwin, and on communications bases near Alice Springs and Exmouth, among other targets.
The five concluded that war with China was almost inevitable and Australia needed an urgent massive upgrade and spend on its military and must maintain and strengthen its alliance with the US.
Those conclusions defy logic. Surely if Australian cities are going to be bombed because we are mad enough to follow the US blindly into a conflict that has nothing to do with us, the better course of action would be not to follow the US into that war and to loosen the ties with the US so that Australia could have its own defence policy and aims.
And the main aim should be to avoid war…..
BACKGROUND
X-Services News Pty Ltd
Australian Veteran News, 1 December 2021:
Made in Taiwan: Scott Morrison has concocted a phony war with China to take to the next election from the pen of Leo DiAngelo Fisher
“Even as Australia licks its wounds from the ignominy of the fruitless war in Afghanistan, arguably Australia’s most pointless war, the Morrison government is paving the way for a costlier, deadlier and even more contentious conflagration. This time the trumped up military foe is China….
Antagonising China – never a difficult task – has been a hallmark of the Morrison government. At first blush this might easily be attributed to the government’s diplomatic and foreign policy ineptitude. And there is that. Morrison is not a deep thinker on most fronts and especially when it comes to foreign affairs. This is a government that has wantonly sidelined diplomats and policy experts within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – how else to explain the AUKUS debacle? – in the belief that every decision by a government is political and in the moment.
There is none so one-dimensionally political as Scott Morrison. Morrison is not a prime minister troubled by the “vision thing”. His vision rarely extends beyond the next set of headlines. For Morrison, each day is a stepping stone to the next election.
That is the only prism through which the Morrison government’s incessant goading of China can be viewed. Australia’s historical bogeyman of choice, the “yellow peril”, has been reprised with unblushing enthusiasm by this government.
The Morrison government has deliberately and relentlessly fanned tensions with China: the more it riles China, the angrier China becomes, the more tangible the threat of war becomes.
Dutton used his recent National Press Club address to raise the prospect of war with China over the future of Taiwan.
Under Dutton’s Doomsday scenario, an “aggressive” China is poised to invade Taiwan, which it considers a renegade territory. Left unchallenged, an emboldened China would inevitably seek to wrest control of the disputed Senkaku Islands, currently administered by Japan, in the East China Sea.
“If Taiwan is taken, surely the Senkakus are next,” Dutton gratuitously speculated with overtones of the discredited “domino theory” of the 1950s and 60s, which mired the West, including Australia, in futile conflicts in Indochina.
Such was the ominous tenor of Dutton’s address as he mounted the case against China.
When on 16 September 2021 Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison announced the15 September AUKUS pact, a new 'enhanced' trilateral security partnership with the United Kingdom and United States of America along with the cancellation of a submarine fleet contract, it was barely seventeen days after he and his government had signed off on the 22 point undertakings in the 30 August Inaugural Australia-France 2+2 Ministerial Consultations.
It is no wonder that France is feeling betrayed. The very existence of AUKUS put into doubt every line of this inaugural ministerial agreement spanning five decades.
A fact that the French Government recognises when it speaks of the need to redefine its relationship with Australia.
No less a person than one of the signatories to the Australia-France inaugural ministerial agreement, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, firmly denies there had been any advance consultations with France ahead of Morrison's announcement.
The French Ambassador to Australia, Jean-Pierre Thebault, in a 43 minute speech at the National Press Club on 3 November 2021 clearly differentiated between the Australian people and their current federal Government. On one hand expressing a high regard for Australia and Australians and a polite contempt for a deceitful, untrustworthy Morrison Government and "certain aspects of the Canberra Bubble and its secret cities practices". He confirmed the French Government's firm belief it had been misled and openly lied to by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Joint statement with:
30 August 2021
1 - At the inaugural Australia-France Foreign and Defence (2+2) Ministerial Consultations, Ministers reflected on the strength of our strategic partnership, in promoting an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region and a rules-based international order that underpins long-term security and prosperity.
2 - These discussions built on Prime Minister Morrison's official visit to Paris in June 2021, at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron, where the two leaders agreed on common bilateral, regional and global priorities.
3 - Ministers reaffirmed the shared values, interests and principles that underpin the bilateral relationship, as reflected in the Joint Statement of Enhanced Strategic Partnership between Australia and France, and the Vision Statement on the Australia-France Relationship. They agreed to publish a report on the Australia-France initiative (AFiniti) to highlight the depth and breadth of cooperative activities.
4 - Ministers reaffirmed the importance of regional cooperation to overcome the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 and its Delta variant in the Indo-Pacific, and agreed to continue to support regional countries' responses, including through the timely and equitable distribution of safe and effective vaccines to enable comprehensive coverage across the Pacific and globally as soon as possible. They reaffirmed their common support to the ACT Accelerator and to the COVAX facility towards reaching this goal, including through vaccine dose-sharing commitments and increasing production capacities.
5 - Ministers highlighted the importance of strengthening the immediate global response to address climate change and environmental degradation. They recommitted to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement and to intensify global action in the lead up to COP26 to decarbonize their economies, pursue collaboration on renewable energies and achieve a fair transition. Ministers especially welcomed collaboration on zero and low emissions technologies, including hydrogen, and looked forward to further investments in the clean energy transition. They also reaffirmed their determination to reach an ambitious framework on biodiversity protection at COP 15 to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
6 - Both sides committed to counter efforts to exploit the COVID-19 crisis to advance geopolitical ambitions, including by addressing escalations in foreign interference, disinformation and malicious cyber activity. Australia and France will cooperate further to apply international law to digital technologies by developing common rules securing stronger and more stable infrastructure against cyber-attacks. Ministers committed to promoting economic openness and opposing coercive economic practices, which undermine rules-based international trade.
7 - Australia and France agreed to cooperate to uphold the integrity of the multilateral system and protect international rules, norms and values. Ministers committed to ensure multilateral institutions are fit-for-purpose, open and transparent, accountable to member states and free from undue influence and politicisation. They reaffirmed their continued engagement within the Alliance for Multilateralism launched by France and Germany.
8 - Both sides agreed to work together to promote their shared democratic principles and defend the universality of human rights.
9 - As partners committed for many years to helping Afghanistan build its future, Ministers expressed concern at the deepening humanitarian crisis. They condemned in the strongest possible terms the attacks carried out on 26 August and joined their Afghan, US and UK friends in mourning their terrible loss. Both sides called on the Taliban to cease all violence against civilians and respect international humanitarian law and the human rights all Afghans are entitled to, including women and girls. They called on the Taliban to fulfil their commitment to allow for the safe and unhindered departure of Afghans and foreign citizens who wish to leave the country, including after 31 August 2021. Both sides strongly supported the international community's statements of 29 August and 15 August, and agreed that any future Afghan government must adhere to Afghanistan's international obligations and commit to protect against terrorism; safeguard the human rights of all Afghans, particularly women, children, and ethnic and religious minorities; uphold the rule of law; allow unhindered and unconditional humanitarian access; and counter human and drug trafficking effectively. Ministers called on all parties in Afghanistan to work in good faith to establish a genuinely inclusive and representative government, including with the meaningful participation of women and minority groups.
10 - Ministers discussed opportunities for closer cooperation on the implementation of their respective Indo-Pacific strategies, including in the context of the updated French strategic framework for the Indo-Pacific. They welcomed the willingness of the European Union to strengthen its participation in regional fora and its role as a cooperative partner to contribute to the stability, security, prosperity and sustainable development of the region in the framework of the upcoming European Union Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
11 - Ministers underscored the importance of the strong and enduring commitment of other partners, including the United States, and Indo-Pacific partners in upholding an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific in accordance with international law. They reaffirmed the importance of ASEAN centrality and the critical role of ASEAN-led fora, which sit at the apex of the regional architecture, in promoting peace, stability, security and prosperity. They affirmed their support for the principles of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and to progressing practical cooperation under its four priority areas.
12 - Both sides voiced serious concerns about the situation in the South China Sea. Ministers expressed their strong opposition to destabilising or coercive actions that could increase tensions and called for all disputes to be resolved in a peaceful manner in accordance with international law, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. They reaffirmed the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight consistent with international law and agreed to closer maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, including through future joint transits.
13 - Ministers underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and encouraged the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. They expressed support for Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organisations, in accordance with the organisations' statutes, to strengthen global cooperation on relevant issues.
14 - Ministers expressed grave concerns about credible reports of severe human rights abuses against persons belonging to Uyghur and other Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and about the erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy and freedoms. Ministers renewed their call for China to grant urgent, meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for independent international observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
15 - Ministers underscored their serious concerns about the crisis in Myanmar, including the rapidly deteriorating COVID-19 situation, and its implications for regional stability. They called on the military regime in Myanmar to immediately end the violence, cease measures to curtail freedom of expression, release all those arbitrarily detained and revert the country back to its democratic path. Ministers welcomed the appointment of the Minister of Foreign Affairs II of Brunei Darussalam as the ASEAN Chair's Special Envoy on Myanmar, stressed the need for a political dialogue inclusive of all relevant parties and urged the Myanmar military to engage with ASEAN to implement the “Five Point Consensus” fully and swiftly.
16 - Australia and France reaffirmed their commitment to trilateral cooperation with India on maritime safety and security, marine and environmental issues, and multilateral engagement. They commended India's prominent role in the Indian Ocean. Ministers agreed to work closely in regional fora, including the Indian Ocean Rim Association and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, to foster cooperation and ensure Indian Ocean regional architecture has the capacity to address regional challenges.
17 - Ministers underscored the importance of promoting dialogue with Pacific Islands countries as recalled during the 5th France-Oceania Summit, held virtually on 19 July 2021. Ministers noted that as a Pacific nation, France brings a unique perspective to our region while amplifying the Pacific's priorities on the global stage. They agreed to support Pacific Island countries' development and resilience, particularly through coordinated projects, including on critical infrastructure. They also agreed to hold a biennial ministerial meeting on the Pacific with the Foreign Affairs and International Development and Pacific Ministers for Australia and the Foreign Affairs and Overseas Ministers for France. They reaffirmed their continued commitment to providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to our Pacific family in times of need, notably through the France-Australia-New Zealand (FRANZ) partnership, under France's chairmanship for the next two years. Ministers agreed to enhance military interoperability, in support of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, including through exercises Croix du Sud, Equateur and Marara.
18 - Australia and France welcomed the growing defence relationship and discussed practical ways to strengthen military-to-military cooperation. Ministers welcomed Australia's support for France's participation in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023, having contributed observers to this year's exercise. Australia will work with the US and France to determine the size and scope of France's participation.
19 - Ministers agreed to begin negotiations on enhancing and diversifying France's military cooperation with Australia, in support of France's force posture in the region. The negotiations demonstrate Australia and France's shared commitment to a secure, stable and inclusive Indo-Pacific, in line with France's 2021 Indo-Pacific Strategy and Australia's 2020 Defence Strategic Update. Ministers committed to developing the concept for decision by their governments in the first quarter of 2022.
20 - Australia and France agreed to closer cooperation on military exercises in all three services, including exercises La Perouse, Peronne and Pitch Black, and regular information exchanges. They underscored the importance of enhanced cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and endorsed efforts underway to develop a regional plan for closer cooperation between the Australian Defence Force and French Armed Forces in New Caledonia (FANC) and French Polynesia (FAPF). Ministers discussed expanding operational-level cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. Both sides undertook to strengthen their support for Pacific Island countries, in particular through the Western Pacific Naval Symposium and the Pacific Quadrilateral Dialogue in order to enhance participating countries' naval capabilities and support maritime surveillance operations.
21 - Both sides committed to deepen defence industry cooperation and enhance their capability edge in the region. Ministers underlined the importance of the Future Submarine program. They agreed to strengthen military scientific research cooperation through a strategic partnership between the Defence Science and Technology Group and the Directorate General for Armaments.
22 - Ministers agreed to deepen space cooperation, including on the operational management of the space domain and space capabilities, including space science and technology research. They agreed to actively work together in international fora to further promote norms of responsible behaviour in space.
23 - Both countries underscored the importance of building more secure, reliable and sustainable supply chains in critical minerals, including rare earths. With this in mind, the Ministers have established a Critical Mineral Dialogue which would provide a strong basis to support Australia and France's strategic, low carbon and economic security ambition.
24 - Ministers recalled the close and long-standing collaboration of our countries in Antarctica, including our engagement in the Antarctic Treaty system and in Antarctic science and research.
25 - Ministers agreed to hold the next Australia-France 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations in 2022.
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