Australia Prepares Option of Sail-Through to Test China
CANBERRA, Australia—Australian defense planners are looking at the possibility of a naval sail-through close to China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea, in case the government decides to follow its close ally the U.S. in testing Beijing’s territorial claims.
“Australia has been looking at options,” said one official in Australia’s military familiar with operational planning.
The official spoke after the American guided-missile destroyer
USS Lassen sailed early Tuesday within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, one of seven sand and rock outcrops in the Spratly chain on which China has built
artificial islands. The U.S. considers the area international waters, and fears China is trying to enforce territorial claims and gain greater control over major shipping lanes.
Another defense official, who has been involved in a military blueprint about the South China Sea for Australia’s Defense Minister Marise Payne, confirmed that plans for possible naval operations or flights by maritime patrol aircraft had been prepared, though said there is no immediate intent to put them into play. “At this stage, it’s only been looking at what we could do,” the second official said. The military had been looking at options including a sail-through for months, the person said, as tensions in the South China Sea intensified.
Ms. Payne didn’t address a question by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday about whether Australia has plans under way to test China.
“Australia has a legitimate interest in the maintenance of peace and stability, respect for international law, unimpeded trade and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea,” she said. “As they do now, Australian vessels and aircraft will continue to exercise rights under international law to freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight.”
China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a faxed request for comment. The U.S. Embassy in Canberra couldn’t be reached.
China, Australia’s largest trading partner, lays claim to nearly all of the South China Sea, where 60% of Australia’s trade passes. Other Asia-Pacific countries also have
high stakes in China’s growing assertiveness in the contested waters. None has publicly said it would openly challenge China with its military following the U.S. naval operation.
Peter Jennings, the executive director of the government-backed security think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said he expected most U.S. regional allies would follow with their own exercises to assert freedom of navigation, although few would telegraph movements in advance for operational security reasons.
“I think it is now critical we follow this up so that we don’t just leave it to the United States on what is an issue worrying countries from the Philippines to Vietnam,” said Mr. Jennings, a former Australian intelligence analyst.
“We won’t know about it until it happens because no one wants to attract a load of Chinese opprobrium in advance,” said Mr. Jennings, who is advising the Australian government of preparation of a new strategic planning blueprint that will grapple with China’s muscle-flexing in the South China Sea.
Australia has two naval frigates in the South China Sea region—the HMAS Arunta and HMAS Stuart—which have been scheduled to carry out exercises alongside Chinese warships over the next week, as a naval confidence-building exercise.
Ms. Payne told The Wall Street Journal there has been no change in plans on those movements following the USS Lassen’s passage.
She said on Tuesday that Australia hadn’t joined the sail-past to challenge to China’s territorial assertions. The possibility was understood to have been informally discussed among military officials alongside talks this month in Boston between Ms. Payne and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and their U.S. counterparts Ash Carter and
John Kerry.
After those talks, Ms. Payne played down the likelihood of Australia joining the U.S. on a freedom of navigation sail-through, but said Canberra had agreed to boost cooperation and exercises alongside the U.S. Navy. Those comments and criticism of Chinese actions earned a rebuke from Chinese envoys in Canberra, who issued a statement saying Australian and the U.S. should not “light a fire and add fuel to the flames.”
“It is important to recognize that all states have a right under international law to freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight, including in the South China Sea. Australia strongly supports these rights,” Ms. Payne said in a statement on Wednesday after the USS Lassen’s passage.
Australia’s government has so far asserted that it will keep carrying out patrols in the South China Sea. These include maritime overflights by long-range Australian reconnaissance aircraft based out of an air base in Malaysia. The frigate Arunta passed through the South China Sea with an Australian navy supply ship two weeks ago.
Australia Prepares Option of Sail-Through to Test China - WSJ