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| Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Greg Austin
Turnbull shows his mettle.
After his first grueling round of summits (G20, APEC, ASEAN Regional Forum), Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in office for two months, returned this week to the capital. He made a national security statement to parliament in which he called for a calm, clear-eyed and calculated response to Islamic State. Several days later, in a wide-ranging interview on ABC TV, he hosed down more alarmist approaches to the South China Sea.
Turnbull picked up a cue from ABC host Leigh Sales in a long list to talk of the South China Sea. He struck a new note for Australia which ran as follows:
Yes there are issues between the United States and China over atoll building and island building in the South China Sea, as there is, in fact in some senses, greater issues, between China and the various countries that are – Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and so forth that are the neighboring countries of the South China Sea.
Read the full story at The Diplomat