Australia earmarks US$42 million for Asean security pact: ‘we face destabilising, provocative, coercive actions’

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would invest A$64 million (US$41.8 million) over four years, including A$40 million in new funding, which would contribute to the security and prosperity of the region, consistent with the priorities of Southeast Asian countries.

“What happens in the South China Sea, in the Taiwan Strait, in the Mekong subregion, across the Indo-Pacific, affects us all.”

Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said the South China Sea was of strategic importance that holds a promising future.

“However, such future will only be possible if nations in the region resolved to uphold cooperation, over confrontation and diplomacy over the use or the threat of use of force,” Manalo said in his speech.

The Philippines is ramping up efforts to counter what it describes as China’s “aggressive activities” in the South China Sea, which has also become a flashpoint for Chinese and US tensions around naval operations.

Manalo said the arbitration is part of international law and nations in the region must stand firmly together in opposing actions that contradict or are inconsistent with it.

Melbourne is hosting the summit from Monday to Wednesday to mark 50 years of Australia becoming the first external partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.