Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that “regional alliances” such as the Quad and AUKUS are the only way to “ensure” that a rules-based order prevails in the Asia-Pacific region, as he warned against Beijing’s alleged attempts to “reshape” the region.
The Quad is a four-member grouping comprising Australia, India, Japan, and the US, while AUKUS is a trilateral pact between Australia, the UK, and the US. Under AUKUS, unveiled last September, the US and UK will supply advanced technology to Canberra so it can develop nuclear attack submarines (SSNs).
Beijing has been scathingly critical of both the US-led groupings, comparing them to an “Asian NATO”, as well as accusing Washington of triggering a “nuclear arms race” in the region. At the same time, AUKUS and the Quad states have maintained that the groups aren’t directed at China and are meant to ensure a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”
“The Quad is an initiative, combined with AUKUS, that has had the most profound impact on the strategic balance within the Indo-Pacific since the PRC started turning atolls into airports in the South China Sea,” Morrison said during a speech delivered at the Global Opinion Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo on Thursday evening.
Morrison, whose Liberal Party lost power in May, said that Beijing has changed its “tone of engagement” in the region over the last decade or so, as he called for international cooperation to counter Beijing’s growing influence.
The former Australian prime minister also claimed that a new “arc of autocracy” was taking shape, which he said was being backed by Russia in Europe and China in the Asia-Pacific. The comments come amid the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine as well as escalating tensions over Taiwan sparked by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s possible visit to Taipei next month.
“It is the nature and terms of this engagement with China that matter. This must mean engagement that respects, reinforces and is bound by our rules-based order, not one that seeks to or allows China to redefine these rules to suit the relativist agenda of autocracies,” Morrison said.
Morrison also defended his government’s policy towards Beijing while he was at the helm, saying that he “recognized” Beijing’s growing economic clout, but that it was Beijing’s behavior which “crossed a line.”
Ties between Australia and its largest trading partner China nosedived after Morrison called for an international probe into the origins of the COVID pandemic in 2020, prompting sanctions on imports of Australian wine, barley, coal, and lobster by Beijing.
Australia's new PM Anthony Albanese has dubbed the Sino-Solomon Islands security pact a major “policy failure” on the part of Morrison.