Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Wednesday she raised concerns about Beijing testing a nuclear-capable missile in the South Pacific, calling the launch “destabilizing” at a meeting with her Chinese counterpart in Manila.
The remarks came a day after the envoy criticized China’s “dangerous behavior” following a clash between Filipino and Chinese sailors in a disputed sea in the South China Sea.
A Chinese submarine launched a ballistic missile equipped with a warhead earlier this month, reaching far into the Pacific Ocean.
“We have made it clear publicly and directly to China that we consider the missile test to be destabilizing and we … put that directly to Foreign Minister Wang Yi in my discussions (with him) yesterday,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian ministers in the Philippines.
“We want a region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous. We want a region where countries, all powers, including the great powers, respect international law and, in particular, the law of the sea,” she said.
Australia has previously said it did not receive sufficient notice of the missile test, and a dozen Pacific island nations have denounced it as violating the region’s desire to remain free of nuclear weapons tests.
Monitors said the missile appeared to land in a part of the ocean somewhere between the Solomon Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu.
Asked about Monday’s incident at Second Thomas Shoal, in which a Filipino sailor was allegedly hit on the head with a club, Wong reiterated that Australia had “real concerns about behavior that is destabilizing and dangerous”.
On Tuesday, during a visit to a Philippine Coast Guard ship, Wong announced the donation of “413 million pesos ($6.7 million) of state-of-the-art drone technology and operator training to the Philippine Coast Guard.”
