Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday played down the possibility that Australia and Indonesia would stage joint patrols in the disputed South China Sea, a move that would have angered Beijing.
Australian and Indonesian officials first discussed the possibility of patrols last year and Indonesian President Joko Widodo reportedly said he wanted to raise the issue with Turnbull on a visit to Sydney last month.
Widodo told the Australian newspaper he saw patrols, potentially around Indonesia’s Natuna Islands at the southern edge of the hotly contested waters, as important as long as they did not raise tensions.
However, during a visit to Jakarta yesterday, Turnbull played down the possibility of pushing ahead with a plan that could have upset one of Australia’s key trading partners.
China claims virtually all of the South China Sea, despite partial counterclaims from several other nations, including Taiwan.
“We are not going to undertake any actions which would increase tensions in the South China Sea,” Turnbull told reporters during the trip to attend a summit of Indian Ocean states, when asked whether Widodo had raised the issue. “Our commitment is to increase our cooperation with each other in terms of maritime security. So we talk about more collaboration, more coordination, but... it has not been taken any further than that.”
Australia is opening the door to greater trade with China as ties between Canberra and key ally the US fray in the era of US President Donald Trump.
Trump reportedly ripped into Turnbull during a telephone call over a refugee deal agreed with the administration of then-US president Barack Obama.
Canberra said in January it was working to recast the Trans-Pacific Partnership without the US and opened the door for China to sign up after Trump ditched the trade pact.
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
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