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PM warns China not to consider building naval base in the South Pacific
The Prime Minister has warned China not to consider building military bases on South Pacific Islands.
"The maintenance of peace and stability in the Pacific is of utmost importance to Australia," Malcolm Turnbull said.
"We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific Island countries and neighbours of ours."
It comes after a Fairfax Media report which said that there have been early discussions between the Chinese and Vanuatu governments about a military build-up in the island nation.
The Prime Minister said Vanuatu has assured Australia than no approach had been made.
Chinese military delegates arrive for the third plenary session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing last month. (AAP)
China is reported to be eyeing a Vanuatu military base. (9NEWS)
But 9NEWS has confirmed that the Australian Defence Force is aware that China has sounded out Vanuatu about increasing its military engagement.
A senior defence official said China "has certainly expressed its interest" in a greater military presence to the government of the tiny South Pacific nation.
It was not clear how far that had advanced or if what was planned was a permanent base or port access rights.
Either move would be a cause for alarm.
"We don't want to see any change to the status quo in the South Pacific," the defence official said.
"And China building a base on Vanuatu would be a significant change to the status quo.
"We don't want an increasing militarisation of the region."
Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the ABC that a Chinese military base on the island should be regarded as a "game changer" for Australia and the South Pacific.
"It is not in the interests of the region, nor in the interests of stability for there to be increased great power competition in our region," Senator Wong said.
"Militarisation and competition in the region is not something that is conducive to the sort of stable and prosperous region that all of us want."
China is winning hearts and minds in the South Pacific by increasing aid at a time when Australia is cutting foreign spending hard to reign in the Budget deficit.
The Lowy Institute has tracked China's growing influence, finding it has spent US$1.7 billion on 218 projects over the last decade.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was unaware that China had made an offer to Vanuatu over increasing its military footprint.
"The Government of Vanuatu has said there is no such proposal," Ms Bishop told ABC radio.
"I'm aware that China is more engaged in the Pacific, Chinese vessels visited Vanuatu last year as part of a broader visit to the region but these sorts of visits are normal for many neighbours around the world," she said.
"We must remember that Vanuatu is a sovereign nation and its foreign and defence relations are a matter for Vanuatu."
The head of the ANU's National Security College, Rory Medcalf, says the reports are a significant cause for concern.
Australia needed to work out what was planned and why.
There were several plausible reasons why China would want to establish a presence that ranged from the benign to the troubling.
"The most troubling implication for Australian interests is that a future naval or air base in Vanuatu would give China a foothold for operations to coerce Australia, outflank the US and its base on US territory at Guam, and collect intelligence in a regional security crisis," Professor Medcalf said.
Chinese officials make much of the fact that other countries have nothing to fear from its rise because it is not an expansionist nation.
That is only true if the world accepts China’s claim over most of the South China Sea, something disputed by several nations and an international court.
Trillions of dollars of trade pass through the waters where Beijing is annexing disputed islands and turning them into military bases.
And China has established a military based in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa to keep watch over its Indian Ocean trade routes.
Professor Medcalf said that Australia should not provoke undue alarm about China’s behaviour in Vanuatu, without evidence.
But three decades of military planning warned about the dangers of a potentially hostile force gaining a foothold in the region.
"There is nothing between Vanuatu and Australia except the Coral Sea, a point historians of the Second World War will be quick to note," Professor Medcalf said.
Of course, it is important to distinguish between Imperial Japan and today’s China.
The PRC is currently not a source of direct military threat to Australia.
But defence planners have to consider worst-case scenarios, and China is a source of risk – a potential threat if it chose to be, and if regional strategic dynamics were to keep deteriorating.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2018
https://www.9news.com.au/world/2018...r-balance-in-south-pacific-vanuatu-naval-base
Lend unsustainably and move quickly: the China modus operandi
From Vanuatu to Papua New Guinea, from Sri Lanka to Pakistan, from the Maldives to the tiny republic of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, Chinese ‘assistance’ follows roughly the same pattern.
It comes in the form of loans, not much cheaper than, and sometimes more expensive than loans that could have been obtained from organisations set up for the purpose such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But their advantage is that they are approved quickly and are often for purposes more attractive to elites than to the countries themselves.
China was insistent on lending for a 1000-seat convention centre in Vanuatu rather than the hospital that some of the local authorities would have preferred.
It's also often smaller things; bursaries for children of the elites to be educated in China, contracts for their families.
And there’s usually a port or an airfield involved.
In Sri Lanka’s case, China advanced loans approaching US$15 billion for projects including a power plant, an airport, an extension of an existing seaport and a new seaport.
After a 2015 election dominated by allegations of corruption, a new president came in promising to weaken the bonds with China. Instead, he found himself bound by contracts to make payments on debts for projects that weren’t commercial. The new Hambantota airport became known as the world’s emptiest. He agreed to hand over to China 99-year leases on the Hambantota seaport (and the airport) in exchange for writing down the debt.
In Djibouti, a dirt poor country with a population of less than one million, China advanced US$9 billion, pushing it towards unsustainable debt. After the International Monetary Fund has sounded a warning it lent US$1.1 billion to develop a port. In January 2016 it was granted a commercial lease at the port that quickly escalated to becoming a commercial and military logistics hub, and then a full naval base. It was built and occupied within 18 months. By November 2017 Chinese troops were conducting live fire drills.
Observers say that if China gets the right to build a military base in Vanuatu it’ll also be constructed in record quick time. China’s modus operandi is to lend target countries more than they can afford for projects that won’t pay returns, buttering up decision makers along the way, then to renegotiate the debt in return for the right to strategically important assets.
It spreads its money widely, because it knows that doesn’t work in one country will probably work in another. And when it gets approval, it moves fast, knowing that in many of the target countries circumstances change quickly.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/...the-china-modus-operandi-20180410-p4z8tj.html
The Prime Minister has warned China not to consider building military bases on South Pacific Islands.
"The maintenance of peace and stability in the Pacific is of utmost importance to Australia," Malcolm Turnbull said.
"We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific Island countries and neighbours of ours."
It comes after a Fairfax Media report which said that there have been early discussions between the Chinese and Vanuatu governments about a military build-up in the island nation.
The Prime Minister said Vanuatu has assured Australia than no approach had been made.
Chinese military delegates arrive for the third plenary session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing last month. (AAP)
China is reported to be eyeing a Vanuatu military base. (9NEWS)
But 9NEWS has confirmed that the Australian Defence Force is aware that China has sounded out Vanuatu about increasing its military engagement.
A senior defence official said China "has certainly expressed its interest" in a greater military presence to the government of the tiny South Pacific nation.
It was not clear how far that had advanced or if what was planned was a permanent base or port access rights.
Either move would be a cause for alarm.
"We don't want to see any change to the status quo in the South Pacific," the defence official said.
"And China building a base on Vanuatu would be a significant change to the status quo.
"We don't want an increasing militarisation of the region."
Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the ABC that a Chinese military base on the island should be regarded as a "game changer" for Australia and the South Pacific.
"It is not in the interests of the region, nor in the interests of stability for there to be increased great power competition in our region," Senator Wong said.
"Militarisation and competition in the region is not something that is conducive to the sort of stable and prosperous region that all of us want."
China is winning hearts and minds in the South Pacific by increasing aid at a time when Australia is cutting foreign spending hard to reign in the Budget deficit.
The Lowy Institute has tracked China's growing influence, finding it has spent US$1.7 billion on 218 projects over the last decade.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was unaware that China had made an offer to Vanuatu over increasing its military footprint.
"The Government of Vanuatu has said there is no such proposal," Ms Bishop told ABC radio.
"I'm aware that China is more engaged in the Pacific, Chinese vessels visited Vanuatu last year as part of a broader visit to the region but these sorts of visits are normal for many neighbours around the world," she said.
"We must remember that Vanuatu is a sovereign nation and its foreign and defence relations are a matter for Vanuatu."
The head of the ANU's National Security College, Rory Medcalf, says the reports are a significant cause for concern.
Australia needed to work out what was planned and why.
There were several plausible reasons why China would want to establish a presence that ranged from the benign to the troubling.
"The most troubling implication for Australian interests is that a future naval or air base in Vanuatu would give China a foothold for operations to coerce Australia, outflank the US and its base on US territory at Guam, and collect intelligence in a regional security crisis," Professor Medcalf said.
Chinese officials make much of the fact that other countries have nothing to fear from its rise because it is not an expansionist nation.
That is only true if the world accepts China’s claim over most of the South China Sea, something disputed by several nations and an international court.
Trillions of dollars of trade pass through the waters where Beijing is annexing disputed islands and turning them into military bases.
And China has established a military based in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa to keep watch over its Indian Ocean trade routes.
Professor Medcalf said that Australia should not provoke undue alarm about China’s behaviour in Vanuatu, without evidence.
But three decades of military planning warned about the dangers of a potentially hostile force gaining a foothold in the region.
"There is nothing between Vanuatu and Australia except the Coral Sea, a point historians of the Second World War will be quick to note," Professor Medcalf said.
Of course, it is important to distinguish between Imperial Japan and today’s China.
The PRC is currently not a source of direct military threat to Australia.
But defence planners have to consider worst-case scenarios, and China is a source of risk – a potential threat if it chose to be, and if regional strategic dynamics were to keep deteriorating.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2018
https://www.9news.com.au/world/2018...r-balance-in-south-pacific-vanuatu-naval-base
Lend unsustainably and move quickly: the China modus operandi
From Vanuatu to Papua New Guinea, from Sri Lanka to Pakistan, from the Maldives to the tiny republic of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, Chinese ‘assistance’ follows roughly the same pattern.
It comes in the form of loans, not much cheaper than, and sometimes more expensive than loans that could have been obtained from organisations set up for the purpose such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But their advantage is that they are approved quickly and are often for purposes more attractive to elites than to the countries themselves.
China was insistent on lending for a 1000-seat convention centre in Vanuatu rather than the hospital that some of the local authorities would have preferred.
It's also often smaller things; bursaries for children of the elites to be educated in China, contracts for their families.
And there’s usually a port or an airfield involved.
In Sri Lanka’s case, China advanced loans approaching US$15 billion for projects including a power plant, an airport, an extension of an existing seaport and a new seaport.
After a 2015 election dominated by allegations of corruption, a new president came in promising to weaken the bonds with China. Instead, he found himself bound by contracts to make payments on debts for projects that weren’t commercial. The new Hambantota airport became known as the world’s emptiest. He agreed to hand over to China 99-year leases on the Hambantota seaport (and the airport) in exchange for writing down the debt.
In Djibouti, a dirt poor country with a population of less than one million, China advanced US$9 billion, pushing it towards unsustainable debt. After the International Monetary Fund has sounded a warning it lent US$1.1 billion to develop a port. In January 2016 it was granted a commercial lease at the port that quickly escalated to becoming a commercial and military logistics hub, and then a full naval base. It was built and occupied within 18 months. By November 2017 Chinese troops were conducting live fire drills.
Observers say that if China gets the right to build a military base in Vanuatu it’ll also be constructed in record quick time. China’s modus operandi is to lend target countries more than they can afford for projects that won’t pay returns, buttering up decision makers along the way, then to renegotiate the debt in return for the right to strategically important assets.
It spreads its money widely, because it knows that doesn’t work in one country will probably work in another. And when it gets approval, it moves fast, knowing that in many of the target countries circumstances change quickly.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/...the-china-modus-operandi-20180410-p4z8tj.html
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