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.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS