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Australia warns Southeast Asia of 'coercive actions'
Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced A$286.5 million ($186.7 million) in funding for ASEAN projects in areas including maritime security, amid tensions over China's growing assertiveness and its disputed claims to the South China Sea.
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Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks during the opening of the Australia-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit in Melbourne on March 4, 2024. (AFP/William West)
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ustralia said on Monday Indo-Pacific and Southeast Asian countries are facing serious defence threats as it set aside more funds for maritime security projects with ASEAN countries during a summit with regional leaders in Melbourne.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced A$286.5 million ($186.7 million) in funding for ASEAN projects in areas including maritime security, amid tensions over China's growing assertiveness and its disputed claims to the South China Sea.
"We face destabilising, provocative and coercive actions including unsafe conduct at sea and in the air," Wong said in a speech at the summit, without naming China.
"What happens in the South China Sea, in the Taiwan Strait, in the Mekong subregion, across the Indo-Pacific, affects us all."
Melbourne is hosting leaders and officials from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN) for a summit from Monday to Wednesday. ASEAN member Myanmar was excluded due to the ongoing conflict in the country.
Australia is using the 50th anniversary of its ties with ASEAN to bolster ties with the region as it deals with China's growing diplomatic and military reach.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China's claims had no legal basis.
Speaking alongside Wong, Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said the South China Sea was of strategic importance and had a promising future as long as "nations in the region resolved to uphold cooperation over confrontation".
Australia and the Philippines began their first joint sea and air patrols in the South China Sea in November.
The Philippines is ramping up efforts to counter what it describes as China's "aggressive activities" in the South China Sea, which has also become a flashpoint for Chinese and U.S. tensions around freedom-of-navigation operations.
Leaders of Southeast Asian nations and Australia are expected to jointly denounce "the use of force" in regional disputes during talks that kicked off Monday in Melbourne, a collective swipe likely to irritate China.
Beijing's increasingly aggressive stance in the South China Sea was high on the agenda as leaders from the 10-nation ASEAN bloc began a "special summit" with their Australian counterparts.
"We strive for a region where sovereignty and territorial integrity is respected," a draft joint ASEAN-Australia statement obtained by AFP read.
"We strive for a region where differences are managed through respectful dialogue, not the threat or use of force," the statement added, without mentioning China by name.
Territorial disputes in the vital trade corridor have escalated in recent months, with China baring its teeth in areas also claimed by ASEAN members such as the Philippines and Vietnam.
