Britain's defence chief warns China not to 'transgress' rules as South Korean general hints at joining Quad, Aukus

Britain's chief of defence staff has warned China it could face "all kinds of consequences" if it "transgresses international rules" in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Admiral Tony Radakin made the remarks on Tuesday evening at a conference in India, where a senior South Korean general also revealed that the country's new President-elect Yoon Suk-Yeoul was considering joining the US-led Aukus alliance and Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

"What China needs to ... observe is, when you transgress these international rules, this world order, it leads to all kinds of consequences," Radakin said in New Delhi at the Raisina Dialogue 2022, an annual conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics organised by India's external affairs ministry and the Observer Research Foundation think tank.

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Asked whether the war in Ukraine would "distract the West from the China question", the professional head of Britain's armed forces signalled his disagreement, stressing the need to be "really careful" when drawing such conclusions.

He said that the West's response against Russia's aggression would act as a "constraint on how nations will act", without naming China specifically.

"This response has shown ... what the implications are when you use that force and what the implications are when you transgress the international rules of the world," he said.

"If you are any other nation and you are contemplating the use of force, and you are doing that in such a hideous way, which is a transgression of international law and it is clearly illegitimate, then the reactions of the world, the implications and the unpredictably of it ... all nations will be observing that."

Radakin was joined on the panel discussion titled "Dragon's Fire: Deciphering China after Ukraine" by Korea National Defence University President Major General Jung Hae-il, who said the war in Europe would likely affect South Korea's policy of trying to "maintain a balance" between China and the United States.

"Our President-elect Yoon Suk-Yeoul has said that his new government will try to examine whether the country should join the Quad and Aukus to strengthen the Indo-Pacific strategy," Jung said, in reference to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue - whose members are currently the US, Australia, Japan and India - and the Aukus trilateral security pact between the US, Australia and Britain.

South Korea is a US ally but in 2017 agreed with China to a set of constraints known as the "three noes", under which Seoul said it would not join a military alliance with the US and Japan, among other curbs. Seoul agreed to the constraints in return for Beijing lifting economic sanctions that were imposed following a deployment of the US-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system.

Radakin became Britain's chief of defence staff in November last year, amid the country's much-vaunted "Indo-Pacific Tilt" - a strategy to increase its presence in the region, partly as a counter to China's increasing assertiveness.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper last March, Radakin described the Indo-Pacific as "this incredible hub ... [that] the UK is looking to have a larger say in". "Where navies go, trade goes, and where trade goes, navies go," he was quoted as saying.

Last week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reassured his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his country's "decades-long commitment" to the region, on a visit to New Delhi where the two sides agreed on a "new and expanded" defence and security partnership.

A Downing Street press release issued afterwards said Britain would "work with India to boost security in the Indo-Pacific, including new fighter jet technology, helicopters and collaboration in the undersea battle space".

Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warned China in October last year that it was "in danger of destabilising the region" and "provoking further conflict in other disputed areas" after Beijing sent a record 52 fighter jets into Taiwan's air defence identification zone in a show of force.

On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told an audience at the Raisina Dialogue that the Ukraine conflict would have wide-ranging implications.

"The outcome of the war will not only determine the future of Europe but also deeply affect the Indo-Pacific region and the rest of the world," she said - citing the "seemingly unrestrained pact" that Russia and China appeared to have forged.

"They have declared that the friendship between them has 'no limits'," she said. "What can we expect from the 'new international relations' that both have called for?"

Speaking in Tuesday's panel discussion on China at the conference, Andrew Shearer, head of Australia's Office of National Intelligence, said Beijing "needs to establish dominance" in the Indo-Pacific on its quest to become the world's leading power.

"That includes an ambition to establish a network of dual-use and military facilities right across the Indo-Pacific from the west coast of Africa to the Pacific," he said. "China wants a region where countries comply with its strategic preferences and choices and don't make their own choices."

Shearer said Australia and the US were concerned about China's "persistent military presence" in the region, which "can complicate" Western military operations "and make them more difficult in crises".

China confirmed last week that it had signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands, an archipelago in the South Pacific that switched diplomatic allegiance to Beijing from Taipei in 2019.

Shearer said Canberra "cannot accept" what he called "an outsider power" influencing the choices of countries in the region.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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