Australia boosts defence ties with Timor-Leste, seeks to curb China’s regional influence

SYDNEY – Australia and Timor-Leste signed a defence deal on Oct 22 to boost cyber and maritime security as Canberra seeks to curb China’s influence among its island neighbours.Australia is Timor-Leste’s largest defence and security partner and the agreement will significantly increase defence exercises, Defence Minister Richard Marles told reporters in the country’s capital of Dili.“This is a time to double down on friendship, to double down on family,” he said.Timor-Leste, around 700km north-west of Australia, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.China’s defence ministry said in August its Defence Minister Dong Jun had met with Timor-Leste’s leaders in Dili and offered to “take military-to-military relations to a new level”.Australia has said it is concerned at the rapid expansion of China’s navy and the presence of Chinese police in several Pacific Island countries.Marles and Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao signed a new defence framework on Oct 22 that will see Australia provide A$62 million (S$79.2 million) for cybersecurity, maritime security, infrastructure, disaster relief and training, an Australian statement said.Australia will also give Timor-Leste three additional police vessels, Marles said.Gusmao told reporters the agreement will help Timor-Leste fight organised crime and illegal fishing.Australia has recently struck a series of big defence and economic agreements with Pacific Islands, including Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, designed to limit China’s security role.The Vanuatu agreement states no foreign military base or infrastructure can be built there and Australia is the archipelago’s main policing partner.But Vanuatu’s police minister rejected on Oct 21 that the deal would require Chinese police to be “phased out”, and Vanuatu’s police force published images on social media of Chinese police training officers to use surveillance drones. AFP