Australia’s defence minister Richard Marles has called on China to explain why it needs to have “such an extraordinary military build-up”.
He said Beijing needs to provide greater transparency and reassurance as it is the “fundamental issue” for the region.
Meanwhile, the Philippines defence minister Gilberto Teodoro Jr has called China “absolutely irresponsible and reckless” in its actions in the South China Sea.
The ministers had separately addressed reporters on the sidelines of an Asian defence summit held in Singapore.
China has yet to respond to either Marles or Teodoro.
Organised by the think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Shangri-la Dialogue has traditionally been anchored by the US and China, which have been jostling for power in the region.
This year China has sent a lower-level delegation and scrapped its speech. In the absence of a strong Chinese presence, the dialogue has been dominated by criticism and questions of Beijing posed by the US and its allies.
On Sunday morning, Marles asserted that “what we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build up in conventional sense, by any country since the end of the Second World War”.
It is not just the size of the military build-up that concerns other countries, he told reporters.
“It’s the fact that it is happening without strategic reassurance. It’s happening without a clear strategic intent on the part of China… what we want to see is strategic transparency and strategic reassurance be provided by China, and an understanding of why it is needed to have such an extraordinary military build-up.”
He cited Australia as an example of such transparency, noting that Canberra makes public its national defence strategy and defence reviews, and makes it “utterly clear” that when they build up their defences it is for Australia and Asia’s security.
“So there is total strategic clarity and assurance that is being provided by Australia to our neighbours, to the region, to the world. That’s what we would like to see,” he said.
Answering a question on a highly-scrutinised Chinese military exercise conducted near Australia and New Zealand’s waters in February, Marles said that while it was “disruptive, and we believe that it could have been done in a better way”, ultimately “China was acting in accordance with international law”.
“The guiding light, the bedrock here, needs to be compliance with international law. That’s what we keep talking about, is the rules-based order.”
Marles was also asked about Hegseth’s call for Indo-Pacific partners to increase defence spending as a bulwark against the threat of China.
Marles said “we actually are taking steps down this path… we understand it, we’re up for it.” US President Donald Trump has called on Australia to increase its spending to 3%, but Canberra has yet to publicly commit to that number.
Marles added that part of that spending would come under Aukus, a pact among Australia, the UK and the US to build up a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.
He said projects under the pact were “on track” and he was “very optimistic” about the progress, including more visits of American submarines to Australia and rotations through a Perth-based navy base.
In a separate interview with the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner, the Philippines defence minister Teodoro said China has been “absolutely irresponsible and reckless in appropriating most, if not all, of the South China Sea and the world cannot tolerate this.”
The two countries have repeatedly clashed over competing claims in the South China Sea, and the Philippines has complained of aggressive and violent tactics by the Chinese coast guard.
He echoed the call for a preservation of the international order, saying that “the takeaway of a lot of defence ministers is that Europe and the US must continue to lead” on this.
“That was the call of the Philippines. That is the call of Lithuania, Latvia, the smaller countries who have a way of life that values freedom and dignity of the human being.”
“And with a way of life that we don’t want the deep state looking over our shoulders or being scared of what we say,” he said, referring to China.
On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had warned of China’s “imminent” threat towards Taiwan and accused Beijing of becoming a “hegemonic power” in the region.
China has vigorously attacked Hegseth in two separate statements, with the latest posted on its Foreign Ministry website early on Sunday.
It said that Hegseth had “vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a ‘threat’.
“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself, who is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.”
Earlier in the defence summit, French President Emmanuel Macron had made a pitch for Europe to be a new ally to Asia.
China also responded to Macron, who had compared the defence of Taiwan to the defence of Ukraine, and said the comparison was “unacceptable” as the “Taiwan question is entirely China’s affair”.
China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island, as its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to eventually “reunify” with it.
