Bolstering arms control has become paramount amid China’s rapid pursuit of nuclear expansion and the grim possibility weapons of mass destruction will become globally available, Richard Marles has warned.
Australia’s deputy prime minister has told Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue that arms control frameworks need to be strengthened to keep up with growing risks and advances in technology across the Pacific and elsewhere.
“China’s decision to pursue rapid nuclear modernisation and expansion, which aims in part to reach parity with or surpass the United States, is another reason the future of strategic arms control must be revitalised,” he informed Asia’s top security summit on Saturday.
“That is a difficult and daunting project.
“We also have to counter the grim, potentially imminent, possibility of another wave of global nuclear proliferation as states seek security in a new age of imperial ambition.”
Mr Marles said the assumption the challenge of restricting nuclear arms ended with the Cold War had proved “spectacularly inaccurate”.
“The landmark treaties that defined that era … are just as relevant today as they were decades ago,” he said.
The annual gathering convenes the region’s defence ministers and senior officials, and is a meeting point for representatives from the US and China to hold high-level talks.
Yet for the first time since 2019, Beijing hasn’t sent its defence minister.
Mr Marles and his Japanese and American counterparts are also holding a trilateral defence ministers meeting and he was also scheduled to attend talks including the Philippines.
He met on Friday with US counterpart Pete Hegseth, who raised the issue of increased defence spending.
The Albanese government has already committed to lift defence expenditure to about 2.3 per cent of GDP within the decade.
Mr Marles wouldn’t confirm if Mr Hegseth specifically nominated a three per cent of GDP target that the US has requested of other allies.
“We are very much up for the conversation and the American position has been clear, and it’s understandable, and that’s a conversation that we will continue to have with the US,” he told ABC.
In brief remarks made before their meeting, Mr Hegseth described the relationship with Australia as a “partnership as strong and robust as it’s ever been, and as important considering the issues we face in the region and the world”.
Speaking with Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, Mr Marles said Australia wanted the most productive relationship with China possible.
“We hope that in the context of that productive relationship, we can see greater transparency and greater communication between our two countries in respect of our defence,” he said.
Both Australia and New Zealand raised concerns in February after three Chinese warships conducted unprecedented live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea.
Both nations complained of late notice over the drills, which led to the diversion of 49 commercial flights.
“From the moment they came within the vicinity of Australia, they were being tailed and tracked by Australian assets … we were very clear about what exercises China was undertaking and what capability they were seeking to exercise and to build,” Mr Marles said.
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