In late August, the Albanese government and the President-elect of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, agreed to a new “defence” treaty that is wholly about China.
Defence Minister Richard Marles travelled to Indonesia to formally ratify the treaty on 29 August.
Albanese hailed the treaty as “profoundly significant” for Australian security, without naming potential enemies.
But the right-wing paper The Australian wrote, “The agreement is aimed at countering growing Chinese threats … and will see Indonesia throw open the doors of its military bases to the Australian Defence Force.”
Al Jazeera reported that the provisions of the treaty will see Australia and Indonesia doing joint military drills and crucially taking part in “greater maritime cooperation in the South China Sea”.
Indonesia’s archipelago straddles the main shipping lanes that link the Indian and Pacific oceans and its islands are critical choke points.
One third of global maritime trade worth $US3.37 trillion passes through the South China Sea as do 80 per cent of China’s energy imports and 39.5 per cent of China’s total trade.
The new military agreement with Indonesia is about Australia positioning itself to be able to place a potential economic chokehold on China.
Tensions are high in the South China Sea. Indonesia is only one of several nations with territorial disputes with China, in this case over the Natuna Islands.
The Western imperial powers—the US, UK and France—have all provocatively held naval “freedom of navigation operations” there.
As the US defence think-tank, the Belfer Center at Harvard University, argues, “The US challenges excessive maritime claims, particularly in the South China Sea, through Freedom of Navigation Operations” to “uphold” the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Australia contributes to Western exercises in international waters off China’s coast. The AUKUS nuclear submarine project is about having Cruise missile-armed boats on long patrols in the South China Sea.
Catch up
For decades, the Philippines and Vietnam had been the most active in building artificial islands in the South China Sea. China is only now playing catch up.
Defence Minister Marles gushed at the prospect of the treaty strengthening Australian military power projection towards China.
“It will see us working together with the global commons to support the rules-based order and, importantly, it will allow us to operate from each other’s countries.”
“The rules-based order” is Western imperialism’s code for the US empire dominating the world economy and maintaining its vast military superiority to stop the emergence of China as an imperial rival.
The treaty with Indonesia comes weeks after Labor agreed to host more American bombers, fighter jets and surveillance aircraft at Northern Territory bases, including potentially nuclear-armed B52 bombers.
In early August, Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong travelled to the US to meet the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, for the yearly Australia-US Ministerial Consultations, known as AUSMIN.
While the headlines about the talks were about Israel’s murderous killing in Gaza, The Guardian reported that, “China is always a significant topic on the agenda.”
Marles said a greater US presence in the Pacific region allowed Australia and the US to conduct “a much greater range of activities and operations and exercises with our partners” including Japan and the Philippines.
He left out that these two countries are partners because they have significant US bases which enable the US to encircle China.
Defense Secretary Austin was more upfront, “All this will mean more maritime patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft operating from bases across northern Australia. It will also mean more frequent rotational bomber deployments.”
This is why the Albanese government supports the US-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Australia wants to enmesh the US into Australia’s sub-imperial region of control and to contain and choke China.
Australia plays on both the US and Indonesia’s “security concerns” to create bulwarks for itself against China. This is Australia’s independent foreign policy at work.
By Tom Orsag
