New Delhi, Jul y 31: Australia has supported India’s position on the border standoff with China
and warned that attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
could increase instability in the region.
Australian High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell, who had a meeting with External Affairs
Minister S Jaishankar here on Thursday, stressed the importance of observing agreed principles and
norms between India and China that had helped prevent escalation along the border between the two
countries in the past.
O’Farrell said Australia opposed any attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo. Such attempts
only increased tension and instability.
The two also discussed developments in the Indo-Pacific region amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Expressing concern at China’s destablising actions in South China Sea that could provoke escalation,
he said territorial disputes and competing claims should be resolved peacefully by the claimant
countries and in ways consistent with international law.
O’Farrell said Australia remained vigilant about strategic trends ‘’inimical to our vision of the
region”. ‘’Australia envisages an open, free and rules-based Indo-Pacific region that is resilient to
coercion” .
