Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly.
He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved.
Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, who initiated the review.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We’re working with Bridge and the team on the AUKUS review ... and we are confident that we’ll work our way through each and every one of the issues which he has raised in the context of this internal Defense Department review,” Rudd said, referring to Colby.
“Bridge has been around my place a lot of times, and so we have known each other for a long period of time, and that’s why I’m confident, quite apart from the mature relationship within our two defense establishments ... that we’ll work our way through this stuff,” he said.
The US-Australia alliance has endured through 15 presidents and 15 prime ministers from different parties, Rudd said.
In 2023, the US, Australia and the UK unveiled details of the AUKUS plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s, part of efforts to counter China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.
It is Australia’s biggest ever defense project.
The Pentagon in June said it was reviewing AUKUS to ensure it was “aligned” with US President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, amid concerns about the ability of the US to meet its own submarine needs and whether Australia’s vessels would be used in support of US policy.
On Sunday last week, Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy responded to a report that Colby had pressed Australia and Japan to clarify what role they would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan by saying Australia would not commit troops in advance to any conflict.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also rebuffed US requests to commit to lifting defense spending from 2 percent to 3.5 percent of GDP, saying that Australia would spend what was needed for its defense.
The reported call by Colby on Australia to clarify its role regarding Taiwan raised eyebrows, given that Washington itself maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity” and not directly saying how it would respond to any Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Rudd said Trump viewed unpredictability as one of his strengths as a leader, whereas China’s communist leadership craved predictability.
“Being unpredictable is no bad thing in terms of the way in which the Chinese view their strategic future on the critical question ... [of] the future of Taiwan,” he said.
Rudd added that Taiwan currently occupied Beijing’s entire military strategic focus, and if it were to fall, China’s “capacities and capabilities would be unleashed more broadly.”
“I believe that logic is galvanizing here in the United States as well as across allies,” he said.
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