UK pledges $46m to enhance security in Indo-Pacific
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SYDNEY • Britain committed £25 million (S$46 million) to strengthen security in the Indo-Pacific as part of a pact with Australia, and leaders of both countries expressed "grave concerns" about China's policies in its far western region of Xinjiang.
In a video call yesterday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison also called for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and warned Russia against invading Ukraine. The leaders said in a joint statement after their meeting that they "agreed on the need for de-escalation and underscored that any further Russian incursion in Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake and have a stark humanitarian cost".
The funds pledged to the Indo-Pacific security agreement would strengthen regional resilience in areas including cyberspace, state threats and maritime security, Mr Morrison and Mr Johnson said.
The bilateral talks come just a week after the so-called Quad group of Australia, the United States, Japan and India pledged to deepen cooperation to ensure the Indo-Pacific region was free from "coercion", a thinly veiled swipe at China's economic and military expansion.
Mr Johnson and Mr Morrison expressed "grave concerns about credible reports of human rights violations in Xinjiang, and called on China to protect the rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong".
The US accuses China of genocide in its treatment of minority Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, and abuse, including forced and prison labour. China denies the accusations.
China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, a move critics said undercut the greater freedoms promised under the "one country, two systems" framework.
REUTERS
