The CAF deployed 600 personnel, a warship, a maritime helicopter, and three warplanes to Australia on July 13 to participate in the Talisman Sabre war exercise, which will run until August 4. Talisman Sabre is a biennial, massive-scale joint military exercise seemingly designed to flex member countries’ military might against superpowers like the PRC as global tensions rise. Australia and the US have been running the Talisman Sabre exercise every other year since 2005, but this year’s is set to be the largest yet – representing a grand total of 19 countries and 35,000 personnel, running from July 13 to August 4.
Such large-scale military operations as those on display under Talisman Sabre would constitute a gross and wholly avoidable escalation of current tensions in the South China Sea, as former Australian Ambassador to the Philippines and to South Korea, Mack Williams, wrote in 2017. The US’ FONOP program in the South China Sea has been systematically proven ineffective and even counter-productive, serving only to provoke Chinese hostility, precluding diplomatic engagement.
China has aggressively acted towards neighbouring countries, redrawing borders and setting up for outright occupation. Assuming that now is not the time of military unity is reckless and dangerous. Yes we do have other problems we need to tackle but even if we do tackle them and not China expansionist politics we soon will find ourselves outgunned and with no allies. It’s a tough call but oversimplifying it down to “we don’t need to spend more on military” is very uninformed.