Secretary of the Department of Defence Greg Moriarty has told Senate estimates that as the Chinese military’s power continues to grow, there will likely be more interactions between the Australian Defence Force and the People’s Liberation Army and navy.
“As China’s power grows, and as the power of the PLA and its capabilities expands, it is conducting more and more operations, you know, beyond its territorial areas. It’s increased over recent years the number of deployments it does outside the first and the second island chain,” Moriarty said.
Members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rehearse for a military parade in Beijing last month. Credit: Bloomberg
“We certainly are of the view that those will continue to grow as the capabilities of the PLA increase. We see additional deployments south, including into waters around Indonesia and other parts of South-East Asia, and we expect that there will continue to be increasing deployments in waters proximate to us,” he said.
Asked about a live-fire drill from a PLA navy ship off the Australian coast in February that led to rerouted commercial flights, Admiral David Johnston said the responsibility was on the acting defence force’s nation to notify the Australian government.
“I visited China to meet with my counterpart in the month of August. I raised the conduct of the live-fire incident and it’s disruption to civil traffic directly with him, and the expectations that military forces conduct themselves professionally,” Johnston told senators.
“It is one of a number of representations that we have made with senior Chinese officials about that activity,” he said.
Johnston said his Chinese counterparts felt they had acted within the law, and did not accept Australian defence officials characterisation of the event.
Senator Jenny McAllister, who is representing Defence Minister Richard Marles at estimates said: “The government recognises that this is a challenging relationship for us to manage … this is an important relationship, but one that is characterised by significant change in the way that China is approaching the region. We are very clear that we need to respond to that.”
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