Scott Morrison has unveiled a more aggressive defence strategy aimed at countering the rise of China, while warning that Australia faces regional challenges on a scale not seen since World War II.
The strategy increases the focus on the Indo-Pacific region, with the Prime Minister warning that Australia needs to prepare for a post-COVID-19 world that is “poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly”.
Australia will build a larger military that is focused on its immediate backyard, including new long-range anti-ship missiles, signalling a major shift in the nation’s defence strategy.
“We have not seen the conflation of global economic and strategic uncertainty now being experienced here in Australia in our region since the existential threat we faced when the global and regional order collapsed in the 1930s and 1940s,” the Prime Minister warned.
Mr Morrison also announced a commitment to spend $270 billion over the next decade on defence capabilities, including more potent strike weapons, cyber capabilities and a high-tech underwater surveillance system.
DECOUPLING IS GLOBAL: Modi deletes Weibo account, as China tensions simmer. “Modi was among a handful of foreign leaders with a Weibo account.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deleted his account on Sina Weibo , China’s answer to Twitter, an Indian government source and the company said, as tensions between the two countries continue to simmer over a border skirmish.
Since posting on Sina Weibo the first time in 2015 during a visit to China, Modi has been an infrequent user of the social media platform. He had more than 200,000 followers and 100 posts before the account was shut.
Sina Weibo announced the closure of the account late on Wednesday and the removal comes a few days after India banned dozens of Chinese apps, including Sina Weibo and ByteDance’s TikTok, following the border clash between the two nations.
An Indian government source said on Thursday that it took time to get Modi’s account taken down.
“For VIP accounts, Weibo has a more complex procedure to quit which is why the official process was initiated. For reasons best known to the Chinese, there was great delay in granting this basic permission,” the source said.
h/tSG