With the global coronavirus response and China's influence in the South China Sea high on the agenda, Australia is about to kick-off a series of high level discussions with US counterparts.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds have travelled to Washington DC for the Australia-US Ministerial Consultations, otherwise known as AUSMIN.
With so much on the table, this round of talks is being considered one of the most significant AUSMIN meetings in decades.
So, what is the AUSMIN forum, and just how much is at stake?
Tensions in the South China Sea
The Australia-US Ministerial Consultations is one of the main forums for bilateral talks between the two allies, led by each country’s Foreign and Defence Ministers.
It’s conducted annually and alternates between the US and Australia. Due to COVID-19, the talks this year were meant to be held virtually, but it’s understood Australia pushed to go ahead with in-person talks.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds have travelled to Washington DC to meet with their counterparts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark Esper.
The global response to the pandemic will be high on the agenda, but the US Ambassador to Australia, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr, has pointed to another pressing issue - China’s activity in the South China Sea.
“Australia’s robust and ongoing leadership in the region helps secure our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Ambassador Culvahouse Jr said.
“We look forward to AUSMIN this week to continue our important work with Australia for the peace and prosperity of our region and the world,” he said.
“This 30th AUSMIN meeting comes at a critical time, amid significant strategic challenges, and a global pandemicwith far-reaching social and economic impact,” Minister Payne said in a statement last week.
“It is essential we continue our most important and complex international engagements face-to-face, to address strategic challenges and advance our shared interests in a secure, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific.”
Australia will also discuss the effort to counter the spread of disinformation from authoritarian states in the wake of COVID.
Why is the South China Sea on the agenda?
Both the US and Australia have ramped-up their rhetoric against China in recent days.
In a note lodged to the United Nations last week,
“Australia rejects China’s claim to ‘historic rights’ or ‘maritime rights and interests’ as established in the ‘long course of historical practice’ in the South China Sea,” the letter read.
“There is no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of maritime features or ‘island groups’ in the South China Sea, including around the ‘Four Sha’ or ‘continental’ or ‘outlying’ archipelagos.”
While the move is likely to draw ire from Beijing, it’s been welcomed by Washington DC.
Navy exercise in South China Sea. Source: Department of Defence
The US has also rejected China’s claims saying the South China Sea is "not China’s maritime empire.’'
“We commend Australia for its leadership in rejecting the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) illegal claims in the South China Sea at the UN and in strongly calling out malign PRC behaviour when and where it occurs,” Ambassador Culvahouse Jr said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “Australia has a substantial interest in the stability of the South China Sea and is committed to upholding the laws that govern this crucial international waterway.”
“Our note lodged with the UN Secretary General refutes China’s unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea. It rejects China’s claim to historic rights and internal waters, its assertion of certain maritime zones, and its contention that there is wide international recognition of its South China Sea sovereignty claims.”
Director of the Lowy Institute’s Asian Power and Diplomacy Program, Hervé Lemahieu, said Australia has made the move knowing there will be diplomatic ramifications.
“Australia feels that it really needs to nail its principles to the mast here and is willing clearly to put up with whatever consequences may follow from Beijing,” Mr Lemahieu said.
“This is a step up by Australia to get involved in the diplomatic fray around the South China Sea, but also to remain consistent with international legal precedents and understanding of how the law of the seas should be managed.”
The South China Sea has been disputed for decades with the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei all having overlapping territorial claims in the region.
An airstrip, structures and buildings on China's man-made Subi Reef in the Spratly chain of islands in the South China. Source: AP
“The South China Sea is strategically very sensitive area because it's an area where something like a third the world's global trade passes through on an annual basis,” Mr Lemahieu said.
“It's not just a clear case of China against the others but the others against each other as well, so that that's been long standing.”
Though, China has asserted its claim of sovereignty recent years by building artificial islands and military bases in the waterway.
“Over the course of the last decade, what we've seen is China as its military spending has ballooned as its capabilities, particularly in terms of its navy has expanded, has played a far more assertive role in the South China Sea and trying to change the facts on the ground,” Mr Lemahieu said.
