Australia flags China as security concern, seeks partnership with SL

• Visiting Australian Deputy PM and Defence Minister says rules-based order under pressure 
• Welcomes SL govt’s statement that it’s not going to allow  Sri Lankan territory to be used in any way to undermine India’s national  security interests   
• Half of Australia’s trade comes past Sri Lanka’s front door   
• Says Australia has worked very closely with India to assert the rules-based order in the Indian Ocean 

By Kelum Bandara 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence of Australia  Richard Marles, who is on a visit here, said that his country has  security anxiety when it comes to China, and his government tries to  work with Sri Lanka and India to assert the rule-based order in the  region, which is under pressure.   

Delivering remarks to a select group of journalists at  Australia House in Colombo, he said his government sought to stabilise  trade relations with China after a significant period of no ministerial  contact.   

“We’ve got that trade back. There’s much more ministerial  contact that we’re grateful for. The relationship is in a better place.  Of course, China does represent an ongoing security anxiety for us,” he  said in response to a query in this regard.   

“We’ve seen a very significant military build-up on the  part of China. Now, what we stand for is an assertion of the rules-based  order. That’s got to be to the interests of a country like ours, which  is deeply invested in a global rules-based order, as being the  underpinning of how we connect to the world and how our economy works,”  he added.   

He said the rules-based order gives agency to his country  as a middle power, and that’s under pressure here in the Indo-Pacific.   

“We’ve worked very closely with India to assert the  rules-based order here in the Indian Ocean. We seek to do the same with  Sri Lanka. I think that is very important. I would note the very  important statement of the Sri Lankan government that it’s not going to  allow Sri Lankan territory to be used in any way to undermine India’s  national interests, national security interests. We think that’s a very  important statement in terms of stability in the region and within the  Indian Ocean.   

And that’s something that we very much support. We’ve  worked really closely with India in relation to this. We do have a  security anxiety when it comes to China,” he said.   

Commenting further on the significance of the Indian Ocean,  he said, “We increasingly see the Indian Ocean and the North East  Indian Ocean as a profoundly important area of strategic interest for  Australia. Half of our trade, literally half of our trade, comes past  Sri Lanka’s front door.”   

“Those sea lines of communication for an island trading  nation such as ourselves, with the growing proportion of our prosperity  being driven by trade, those sea lines of communication are  fundamentally important to our national interest and to our prosperity.  In 2022-2023, the Defence Strategic Review identified the North East  Indian Ocean as an area of critical interest for Australia. That is  about India, but it’s not just about India,” he said.   

Referring to his stay in Sri Lanka, he said, “Our  relationship is one which is very close, where there is a lot of  cultural commonality. We share passions. Cricket is almost among them.  You can’t have a conversation with a Sri Lankan without talking about  cricket almost instantaneously. We reckon there’s about 180,000 Sri  Lankans who now call Australia home, which is a very significant  diaspora in Australia.”