China’s Puzzling Defense Agreement With Australia

Euan Graham

Security, Asia-Pacific

China's claim that the visit yielded ‘major outcomes’ should be treated with caution.

Last Thursday, the Australian newspaper ran an editorial, "Strengthening links with China." This followed its front-page coverage of the visit to Canberra by China's Chief of General Staff Fang Fenghui, for annual talks with Chief of Defence Force Mark Binskin and Department of Defence Secretary Dennis Richardson. Fang later met Australian defense minister Marise Payne.

This was the 18th Defence Strategic Dialogue between Australia and China, not a number that normally commands particular excitement in the crowded schedules of top-brass summitry. However, the Australian reported that this meeting was accompanied by an agreement to “upgrade” Australia-China defence and security relations, including stepped-up cooperation on counter-terrorism, peacekeeping and senior personnel exchanges. The newspaper heralded this as a “positive sign of a maturing bilateral relationship.”

Readers, foreign and domestic, could be forgiven for assuming that Australia and China had conspired to catapult their defense relations onto a new strategic plane. It appears, however, there may be less to this than meets the eye. The Australian's primary source for details of the agreement was a Chinese communiqué obtained by the newspaper. China's claim that the visit yielded ‘major outcomes’ should be treated with caution. As the Australian's Brendan Nicholson pointed out, the media release from the Department of Defence headquarters in Russell Hill makes no reference to any agreement, saying only that the annual defence dialogue is an “important aspect of the broader relationship.”