Published: 12:57 pm, Friday, 19 February 2016
Australia and New Zealand have weighed into the South China Sea territorial dispute, calling for all claimants to lower tensions.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met his NZ counterpart John Key in Sydney on Friday.
Their calls for calm follow reports this week China has placed missiles on Woody Island.
‘We urge all claimants in the South China Sea to refrain from any building of islands, any militarisation of islands, any land reclamation,’ Mr Turnbull told reporters.
‘It is absolutely critical that we ensure that there is a lowering of tensions.’
Mr Turnbull acknowledged Chinese President Xi Jinping was conscious of what’s known in international relations speak as the Thucydides’s Trap – where a rising power creates anxiety among other powers so that conflict becomes inevitable.
‘President Xi is right in identifying avoiding that trap as a key goal,’ he said.
Mr Key flagged NZ and Australia would be using their close economic relationships with China and other Asian countries to make the case for a peaceful and lawful resolution.
‘I don’t think it’s lost on any of the parties that are in a disputed position in the South China Sea that any blow-up of activities there would be very bad for security and economic issues in the region,’ he said.
Labor defence spokesman Stephen Conroy has called for Australia to send the navy on a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea to demonstrate support for the international rules based system.
China has ramped up construction of the artificial islands in a move some experts believe is aimed at bolstering its territorial claims.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the South China Sea.
AAP
