A military exercise bringing together more than 35,000 personnel across 19 different nations, including the UK, is under way in Australia – with Chinese spy ships expected to watch.
The drill – the largest-ever war fighting exercise to take place in Australia – officially started on Sunday with a ceremony in Sydney.
The biennial drill, known as Exercise Talisman Sabre, started in 2005 as a joint exercise between the US and Australia.
This year, personnel from Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the United Kingdom have joined.
The Ministry of Defence said the UK Carrier Strike Group, including HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Richmond, would be training with forces from New Zealand, among others, ahead of the exercise.
“F-35B jets and Merlin helicopters, part of a wider multinational force, are ready to defend and deepen ties across the Indo-Pacific under Operation Highmast,” said a post on the MoD’s X account.
This morning, the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) said on its own X account: “Exercise #TalismanSabre25 begins! UK #CSG25 is excited to join with 18 partner nations and over 35,000 military personnel for the largest iteration of the exercise in its history.”
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The 19 countries will take part in the exercise over three weeks, Australia’s defence department said on Sunday, with China expected to monitor activities.
The drills will also take place in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, making it the first time Talisman Sabre activities have been held outside Australia.
Chinese ships have monitored naval exercises off the Australian coast during the last four Talisman Sabre exercises and were expected to carry out surveillance on the current exercise, Australian defence industry minister Pat Conroy said.
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“The Chinese military have observed these exercises since 2017. It’d be very unusual for them not to observe it,” Mr Conroy told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“We’ll adjust accordingly. We’ll obviously observe their activities and monitor their presence around Australia, but we’ll also adjust how we conduct those exercises,” he added.
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Mr Conroy said the Chinese were not yet shadowing ships as of Sunday.
The drill started a day after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese began a six-day visit to China, where he is expected to hold his fourth face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.
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Mr Albanese said Chinese surveillance of Talisman Sabre would not be an issue raised with Mr Xi.
“That would be nothing unusual. That has happened in the past and I’ll continue to assert Australia’s national interest, as I do,” Mr Albanese said in Shanghai on Monday.
