Patrolling Australias Trade Routes Increasingly Risky, Defence Minister Warns

A Chinese PLA Navy ship (back) is seen past Royal Australian Navy sailors aboard their inflatable rigid hull boat during a maritime cooperative activity between the Philippines, Australia and Canadian navies near Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Sept. 3, 2025. Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty ImagesThe work of the Australian Defence Force in protecting the country’s sea trade routes is “challenging, and in truth… increasingly risky,” said Defence Minister Richard Marles, in an address to the Indo Pacific Conference in Sydney.“And in our contemporary world, literally, the daily work of the Royal Australian Navy is to assert the rules-based order,” he said, since open sea lanes, including those that go through the South China Sea and East China Sea, are at the core of Australia’s national interest.