Shangri-La Dialogue: Australia says peace with China remains despite Yellow Sea military skirmish

Speaking to This Week in Asia at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, Marles also met his Chinese counterpart, new defence chief Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the dialogue on the same day, using the meeting to speak directly about the Yellow Sea and other recent naval incidents.

Marles had a similar meeting last year with his previous counterpart, just as bilateral relations between the two nations started improving.

Despite the skirmish last month and a November run-in between the two nations’ navies off Japan’s coast, the “vast bulk of the interactions that the Chinese navy has with Australia’s are safe and professional”, he said to This Week in Asia.

It underscores the pull-and-push in the newly stabilised China-Australia ties, where there is willing engagement between the two nations when friction arises in shared areas such as regional seas.

“If there are interactions with other militaries, in this case with the Chinese navy, what needs to happen is that assistance in those interactions occur in a professional and safe way.”

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Reciprocal professional approaches are critical between two nations trying to work together, he says.

“We do have peace here, there is peace between Australia and China,” he said.

“We’ve gone through a period of non ministerial contact for two or three years … and since then we’ve had numerous interactions at the ministerial level. That’s a good thing, we want that to continue.”

“There are disagreements … and we need to speak clearly and frankly with each other even if those messages are difficult.”

Just two years ago, bilateral relations between the two nations were at record lows amid