Defence Minister Richard Marles will meet with regional counterparts across 30 countries at a three-day defence forum in his first overseas trip since being sworn in.
The Shangri-La dialogue is the largest regional security dialogue in the Indo-Pacific and is being held in Singapore between June 10 to 12.
It will host addresses from both China’s Minister of National Defence Wei Fenghe and United States Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.
Mr Austin will speak on the US’ defence policy in the Indo-Pacific while Mr Wei will outline China’s vision for regional order and stability.
Mr Marles says he will use the conference in Singapore to engage in robust conversations on the strategic challenges of the region as he seeks to set up a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines, including with his US counterpart.
“Australia remains committed to working with our partners across the region to promote our shared interests of a peaceful, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific,” he said.
China’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea, after recently sparking an incident with a RAAF plane in the region, and increasing influence in the Pacific islands where it is trying to push through a regional security deal has Western allies worried.
Reports have also indicated a new facility at Cambodia’s Ream base is being built for China’s exclusive use, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has labelled concerning.
“We have been consistently assured that no foreign military will be granted exclusive access at Ream,” Mr Albanese said.
Cambodia’s deputy prime minister Prak Sokhonn told Foreign Minister Penny Wong the proposition of an exclusive Chinese naval base was a “groundless accusation”, according to a statement released by Phnom Penh.
Mr Marles will also attend the 10th Australia-Japan-United States trilateral defence ministers’ meeting with Japanese Minister of Defence Kishi Nobuo and Mr Austin.
Defence department secretary Greg Moriarty and Chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell are also travelling to Singapore for the dialogue.
The trip comes as top security brass from Five Eyes countries – which spans Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand – met in Sydney to discuss transnational crime, with cyber attacks being a key focus.
FBI deputy director Paul Abbate says countries like China, Iran and Russia are increasingly using criminals and nefarious actors as proxies to launch attacks on Western nations.
“It’s not just a matter of providing safe haven to criminals and getting in the way of the justice … it goes beyond that,” he told Sky News.
“Russia, China, Iran, actually leverage criminals, nefarious cyber actors, to commit attacks against our countries to steal or more, to break the laws within our countries.”
with AFP
