By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) -The work of Australia’s defence force to protect its sea trade routes, including through the South China Sea, is becoming more risky as Beijing undertakes the “biggest military build-up in the world today”, Australia’s defence minister said on Tuesday.
Open sea lanes, including trade routes that go through the South China Sea and East China Sea, were at the core of Australia’s national interest, Richard Marles said in an opening speech at a navy conference in Sydney.
“That work is challenging and in truth it is becoming increasingly risky. The biggest military build-up in the world today is China,” he told the Indo-Pacific conference.
“That it is happening without strategic reassurance means that for Australia and so many countries a response is demanded.”
Australia was increasing its military spending to build a “more capable, lethal, long-range navy”, he said.
This included acquiring frigates from Japan, developing submarine drones with U.S. company Anduril, and expanding its naval shipyards facing the Indian Ocean.
Australia raised concerns with Beijing last month after a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares near an Australian maritime patrol plane carrying out surveillance in the South China Sea, the latest in a series of such incidents that Australia has labelled “unsafe and unprofessional”.
Dozens of navy and coast guard chiefs, including from the United States, Japan, Philippines, Singapore and Pacific Islands, are attending the conference in Sydney which comes as Australia prepares to build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet with the U.S. and Britain through the AUKUS partnership.
About 100 protesters, including pro-Palestinian groups, gathered outside the conference centre in Darling Harbour. New South Wales police said seven people were arrested after clashes with officers.
Several Israeli companies are exhibiting at the defence conference.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Hollie Adams in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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