Penny Wong warns about risk of ‘catastrophic’ war

In a speech within the UK early at the moment, she stated US-China tensions have been making the area “more dangerous and volatile” and any battle could be felt the world over.

“If conflict were to break out in the Indo-Pacific, it would be catastrophic – for our people and our prosperity,” Wong informed an viewers at King’s College London.

The international minister stated that it was “up to all countries to ask ourselves how can we each use our national power, our influence, our networks, our capabilities, to avert catastrophic conflict”.

Wong referred to as on China to take up a proposal from the Biden administration to set some broad limits on their strategic ambitions to stop potential flashpoints.

She confused the Albanese authorities didn’t wish to “force people to choose sides” within the superpower rivalry between the US and China.

Last December, Wong grew to become the primary Australian minister to go to China in three years the place she met her Chinese counterpart.

Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles are visiting the UK for talks with their British counterparts this week.

UK ‘ought to withstand colonial previous’

In her speech, Wong additionally urged Britain to confront its colonial previous if it needed to strengthen and construct new ties within the Indo-Pacific.

Recalling her circle of relatives’s expertise of British colonialism, the Malaysian-born Wong stated Britain and different international locations ought to attempt to shed the “sheltered in narrower versions” of their histories.

“My father is descended from Hakka and Cantonese Chinese,” she stated.

“Many from these clans laboured for the British North Borneo Company in tin mines and plantations for tobacco and timber.

“Many labored as home servants for British colonists, as did my very own grandmother.

“Such stories can sometimes feel uncomfortable – for those whose stories they are, and for those who hear them.

“But understanding the previous permits us to raised share the current and the long run.”

In the facing of growing Chinese assertiveness, Britain is aiming to build security and trade ties in the Indo-Pacific.