Australia and East Timor sign deal to boost security

Australia and East Timor yesterday signed a defense deal boost cyber and maritime security as Canberra seeks to curb China’s influence among its island neighbors.

Australia is East Timor’s largest defense and security partner and the agreement will significantly increase defense exercises, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles told reporters.

“This is a time to double down on friendship, to double down on family,” he said in East Timor’s capital, Dili.

Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles speaks during a news conference in Sydney on Sept. 24.

Photo: Reuters

Australia will provide A$62 million (US$43.5 million) for cyber security, maritime security, infrastructure, disaster relief and training, under the defense framework signed yesterday by Marles and East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, a statement from Canberra said.

East Timor, about 700km northwest of Australia, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.

Australia has expressed concerns over the rapid expansion of China’s navy and the presence of Chinese police in several Pacific island countries.

As part of yesterday’s agreement, Australia would also give East Timor three additional police vessels, Marles said.

Gusmao told reporters the agreement would help East Timor fight organized crime and illegal fishing.

Australian National Security College expert associate Euan Graham said that Canberra is facing difficulty “matching its recent cut-through in the Pacific” in South East Asia.

East Timor is situated close to the northern city of Darwin, which hosts a rotating force of US Marines, and is “a key location for the security of Australia’s northern approaches,” Graham said.

“It is vital for Canberra to ensure that Dili, at very least, does not provide strategic access to China,” he said.

Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) met with East Timor’s leaders in Dili and offered to “take military-to-military relations to a new level,” Beijing said in August.

East Timorese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Bendito dos Santos Freitas visited Moscow for talks this month.

Australia has struck a series of defense and economic agreements with Pacific islands including Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, designed to limit China’s security role.

The A$500 million Vanuatu agreement states that no foreign military base or infrastructure can be built there and Australia is the archipelago’s main policing partner.

However, Vanuatu’s police minister on Wednesday rejected 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.