Australia loves and hates China, covets China's huge consumer market, but is very jealous of the cooperation between China and Pacific island countries. No, the new cooperation between China and the Pacific island countries has not yet been fully negotiated, and the Australian side will not be able to sit still.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese].
A few days ago, Australia** sent people to Timor-Leste and announced that it would spend $23 million to support the policing work in Timor-Leste. Combined with the recent discussions between China and Papua New Guinea on policing and security cooperation, the two are likely to be related. At that time, as soon as the news of the negotiations between China and PNG came out, the Australian side quickly stood up and emphasized that Australia was the preferred security partner of PNG.
Australia has always aspired to be the "boss" of the South Pacific. With the expansion of China's international cooperation, China has reached a lot of cooperation with Pacific island countries in many fieldsThese collaborations are seen by Australia as a competition for influence in the South PacificAmong them, security and police cooperation is particularly feared by the Australian side. When China and the Solomon Islands reached relevant cooperation in the past, the Australian side reacted very fiercely.
So,This time, the Australian side intends to strengthen its police partnership with Timor-Leste, which is also seen as a "fight" with China. However, the target that the Australian side is looking for this time is right and wrong.
For Australia, Timor-Leste is very important, geographically,This small island nation is the gateway to Australia, so the Australian side has a strong desire to control Timor-Leste. Strengthening police cooperation with Timor-Leste can also strengthen relations between the two countries, which is indeed beneficial to the Australian side.
China and Timor-Leste signed a protocol on medical teams in Timor-Leste
However, despite the fact that Australia attaches great importance to Timor-Leste, Timor-Leste's development is also limited, and it is one of the smallest economies in the world. Instead of trying to help Timor-Leste develop, Australia grabbed resources with others.
Timor-Leste is rich in oil and gas resources, with 44 oil fields discovered, proven oil reserves of up to 5 billion barrels, and natural gas reserves of 700 billion cubic meters. But because the country does not have enough money and advanced technology, resource extraction can only be carried out by foreign capital. And Australia is eyeing these oil and gas resources, wanting to take advantage of East Timor.
There is a $71 billion Dayangsheng oil and gas field between Australia and Timor-Leste, and Australia's plan is to transport oil and gas to its side, which is very unfavorable to Timor-Leste's economic development, so Timor-Leste said that if Australia does not agree to build the energy pipeline to Timor-Leste, the country will look for new partners, and if necessary, ask China to help invest.
Speaking of China and Timor-Leste, the relationship between the two countries is also very deep. Timor-Leste was established as an independent state for a short time, declaring independence from Indonesia at the end of the last century, but China was supportive and was one of the first countries to recognize Timor-Leste. Since then, China has also provided a lot of assistance to Timor-Leste, such as the Suai Expressway, which was built by Chinese enterprises, which not only provided a large number of employment opportunities, but also trained many technical talents.
Horta, Timor-Leste
Therefore, Timor-Leste has a very high opinion of China and trusts China very much. A few days ago, at the peace leaders' dinner held in France, Horta, East Timor, also openly spoke for China. As everyone knows, the United States and the West have always regarded China's rise as a "threat," and as long as China has any cooperation with any country, it will definitely make a fuss and hype it up.
This time, Timor-Leste said that the cooperation between the country and China will not pose a threat to either sideChina itself is not a so-called "regional threat", and the "China threat theory" constantly hyped up by NATO is very absurd, and China should be respected.
At the same time, he also pointed out that there is no cooperation between Timor-Leste and China in the area of security. This means,Even if Australia and Timor-Leste strengthen police cooperation, it will not stop Timor-Leste and China from cooperating in economic and other fields. Therefore, Australia's attempt to use police cooperation with Timor-Leste to "counter" China will not have much effect.
PNG Foreign Minister Tkachenko said that cooperation with China will not threaten relations with the United States and Australia
What's more, the police and security cooperation between China and PNG is only in the early stages of consultation. PNG has also stressed that cooperation with China is very simple, and China will only provide relevant training, equipment and monitoring technology assistance, and will not affect its previous security and defense agreements with the United States and Australia. PNG is clearly divided into China as economic partners and the United States and Australia as security partners. Therefore, it is completely unnecessary for Australia to worry about the sky at this time.
Even blindly hyping up the cooperation between China and Pacific island countries will affect the relationship between China and Australia, which is not easy to ease. Previously, because of Australia's tough attitude towards China and a lot of inappropriate remarks, China-Australia relations fell to a low point, and the economic and trade exchanges between the two sides were affected, which had a great impact on Australia's economy. Now that China-Australia relations have eased, the Australian side should take this as a warning, be more flexible on China-related issues, and stop following the old path of its predecessor.
Project Sword