Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters Wednesday that in a phone call with President Trump he emphasized the role China must play in containing North Korea’s nuclear threat and asserted that China is “the country with the biggest lever” to pull on sanctions.
Describing the 30-minute call as a “very warm discussion,” Turnbull declined to give Australian media specifics to which the two world leaders agreed. “Naturally we focused on the threat posed by North Korea. We are absolutely of the one mind in condemning this reckless conduct,” he said.
Turnbull added that China’s role in North Korea’s increasing belligerence towards America and South Korea is pivotal to solving the crisis.
“China does have the greatest leverage by far and we will both continue to encourage China to bring more economic pressure to bear on North Korea to bring this regime to its senses,” Turnbull said. “A conflict would be catastrophic, everyone understands that, and the best avenue to achieve that, that we can see, is continued enforcement of strong economic sanctions, and, of course, the country with the biggest lever in that regard is China.”
Turnbull confirmed he and Trump agreed on “the importance of the full enforcement of the current sanctions regime and the importance of additional sanctions which, of course, are under consideration at the moment, being imposed in the future.”
Australia’s news.com.au reported that Trump “hired” Turnbull as an intermediary to help convince the Chinese communist government to agree to another round of international sanctions on North Korea. “The US President yesterday sought advice from the Prime Minister about how Australia connects with China, given its longstanding relationship with its biggest trading partner,” news.com.au reported.
The outlet added that Turnbull also expressed concern for the growing Islamic State (ISIS) threat in the region, particularly the attempt to establish an ISIS caliphate in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country.
The White House readout of Trump’s conversation with Turnbull does not mention China, instead emphasizing that the two leaders “condemned North Korea’s belligerent actions and confirmed that their two countries will intensify joint efforts to denuclearize North Korea.”
In addition to its proximity to North Korea and the Asian mainland, Australia has a vested interest in containing Chinese influence in the region, as Beijing has claimed a majority of the waters of the South China Sea – a $3 trillion trade route – as its own. China has protested Australia’s presence in those waters despite an international legal ruling finding that China’s claims to the sea are largely invalid, particularly those to the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which belong to Vietnam and the Philippines. China has created artificial islands in both of those chains out of smaller reefs and equipped them with heavy military assets.
In 2015, Australia protested China’s presence in the region, prompting a warning that the Chinese military would not hesitate to attack. “Don’t test China’s patience by flying close to China’s islands,” an editorial in Chinese state media read. “Everyone has always been careful, but it would be a shame if one day a plane fell from the sky and it happened to be Australian.”
Australia’s 2016 defense plan featured significant spending increases on its naval fleet, in part a consequence of China’s colonization of the region.
Addressing the new Trump administration in January, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop issued remarks urging America to maintain its prominent role in the Asia-Pacific region. “We see the United States as the most important power to ensure peace, prosperity, and stability in our region,” she said, adding that Australia was “prepared to defend — and, if necessary — fight for the values we share.”
On North Korea specifically, China has repeatedly dismissed the claim that it has any influence over the communist Kim regime, despite trade with China accounting for almost 90 percent of the North Korean economy. “In history, China used to have a profound influence on the Korean Peninsula, but the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has never been subordinate to the People’s Republic of China,” a column in the state-run Global Times newspaper reads Wednesday.
“North Korea’s development of nuclear capabilities is the result of the distorted geopolitics in Northeast Asia, and North Korea itself and the US are to take the most blame,” the article continues. “Some Chinese people overestimate China’s strength and have an inaccurate understanding of international relations, contending that China’s diplomacy on North Korea has failed.”
China participated in the latest round of U.N. sanctions against North Korea in August.
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