Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne has said the "Quad", which has brought together her country, the US, Japan and India, supports rules, norms and regional resilience amid China's growing influence and assertiveness in the region.
Speaking at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney on Tuesday, Payne said during the Quad's 1st ministerial meeting in New York last month, the grouping has determined to deepen engagement, to set an example and give confidence to others in the region.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and Foreign Ministers Toshimitsu Motegi of Japan and Marise Payne of Australia attended the meeting hosted by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on September 26 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Payne said her country's overarching concern is the preservation of freedom and sovereignty in the Indo-Pacific.
Payne said Australia recognised the challenges facing the Pacific, in particular climate change.
Our overarching concern is the preservation of freedom and sovereignty in the Indo-Pacific, she said.
She said Australia will strive for a region that respects international law, where sovereignty prevails, and where states are not subject to coercion.
Payne said Australia must defend an international rules-based order in its own interests, but also that the world's multilateral institutions were no longer fit for purpose and needed reform.
She said the "Quad", which brings together four major democracies - Australia, the United States, Japan and India - supports rules, norms and regional resilience.
She said the Indian Ocean Rim Association, bringing together the key littoral and island states, completes the Indo-Pacific regional jigsaw.
Underlining that as the world is facing an increasingly contested international order with a crowded field of players vying to declare what is fair and what is right, finding consensus is increasingly difficult.
"That is why countries such as Australia will continue to step up and help marshal international support to evolve rules that will keep necessary economic competition from tipping into dangerous conflict, and preserve many of our cherished principles," she said.
She said sovereign states remain the building blocks of the international system and have unique responsibilities, but non-state actors are assuming greater relevance in this new strategic landscape.
"We will also be engaging with a different, post-Brexit Britain and Europe. We continue to grapple with ongoing insecurity and instability in the Middle East, with a revanchist Russia intent on disruption, and with an increasingly assertive and influential China," she said.
China claims sovereignty over all of South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims.
China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources and are also vital to global trade.
The Australian foreign minister in her speech also asserted that China must be held accountable for its human rights abuses domestically because countries that respect and promote their citizens' rights at home tend also to be better international citizens.
Payne said it was in Australia's national interests to speak out where it saw human rights being abused. Speaking our minds does not constitute interfering in another country, she said.
Payne said it was in Australia's national interest to advocate for a global rules-based order that all countries adhered to, and that included advocacy for human rights everywhere.
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