Radio Interview, ABC AM

SUBJECT/S: Support for Ukraine; Chinese Naval Vessels off the Coast of Australia.

HOST, SABRA LANE: Richard Marles, thanks for joining AM.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: A pleasure, Sabra.

LANE: Australia has ruled out sending troops to be part of the British Prime Minister's coalition of the willing to help Ukraine. Is the government preparing to give more equipment or ensure the 49 Abrams tanks already promised are actually delivered?

MARLES: Well, we will continue to support Ukraine, as we've said. And we stand with Ukraine so that this can be, this conflict can be resolved on Ukraine's terms. In terms of the Abrams tanks, that's a commitment that we've made and we have established a timeline with the Ukrainian government about the delivery of those tanks to Ukraine. Now, for operational reasons, won't go into the detail of that timeline-

LANE: Well, they were promised last October, so that was five months ago. Are they going to arrive in a timely fashion soon or?

MARLES: Well, they'll definitely arrive in a timely fashion and they'll arrive in a timeframe that we've agreed with Ukraine and that's exactly how we have managed the delivery of other equipment to Ukraine. And obviously we don’t go into that timeline because, you know, for obvious reasons. But this has been agreed with Ukraine and they're very grateful for the contribution.

LANE: Peter Dutton says if he becomes Prime Minister, he'd lobby Mr. Trump to change his mind about Mr. Zelenskyy in Ukraine. Why should Australia trust President Trump given how he's treated Ukraine's President at the Oval Office?

MARLES: Well, again, our focus is on in respect of Ukraine is on supporting Ukraine. That's where Australia lies. That's the decision that we have to. Ukraine can absolutely rely on Australia's ongoing support in their defence. And we will work with international partners. We've obviously worked with the United States over the last three years and we will continue to do that. But we've worked with the United Kingdom and we'll continue to do that as well and with European partners and look at the best way in which we can provide support.

LANE: What message do you think the Chinese navy was sending with its live fire exercises here, in Vietnam and the daily sorties over Taiwan?

MARLES: Well, I think what we see is China being more assertive. That's been clear over a significant amount of time-

LANE: But specifically sending their boats so close to Australia and doing those exercises in conjunction together.

MARLES: Yeah. I think there is the broad comment that I make about an assertiveness of China. In terms of the specifics of this particular mission, we have been following that mission very closely, as we've said repeatedly, and we continue to do so. Right now, the Chinese task group is southwest of Perth and we have two assets, HMAS Warramunga and HMAS Stuart, who are tailing it. And we've also using P-8s to overfly the task group. The point, I mean, obviously we want to watch very carefully to make sure they're complying with international law, which, to be fair, they are. But we're also watching because we want to understand exactly what this mission is doing, the kind of exercises they're undertaking, what their configurations are actually getting into the detail of this. And it's really an analysis of that which we will do in the fullness of time, which answers the question that you've just asked. And so I'm not going to speculate specifically in terms of what they have been trying to achieve with this mission, other than to say we have been watching it very closely and we will know that answer, and we will analyse it properly and properly understand exactly what they were trying to do.

LANE: The Prime Minister said Friday, a week ago, China had given advance notice of the live fire drills by its navy ships. Defence officials then told Parliament there was no such advance notice. Why did Mr. Albanese say that?

MARLES: Well, the Prime Minister referred to the broadcast that the Chinese Navy undertook on that day. We also made clear, and the Prime Minister made clear that-

LANE: But he said that we'd been given advance notice when clearly Defence said that wasn't the case.

MARLES: Well, as I say, the Prime Minister referred to the broadcast that China had done and also made very clear that the notice that was provided by China in that moment was not up to the standards that Australia would itself put in place, and that what that gave rise to was a circumstance where there were commercial aircraft that were in the air at the time which needed to make decisions mid-flight-

LANE: Sure. But the very first statement. Was the Prime Minister misled or did he intend to downplay it?

MARLES: The Prime Minister did neither of those things. The Prime Minister made clear that there was a Chinese broadcast and that's not an issue, and that the broadcast did not meet the standards that Australia would put in place. That is not an issue either-

LANE: But factually, in getting to this point, the Prime Minister said that we'd been given- that Defence had been given advance notice when that was not the case.

MARLES: Sabra what mattered in respect of that day- and what came out in Senate estimates as well. I mean, the fundamental point here was that there was a very disconcerting set of circumstances for commercial airlines that were in the air on that day, by virtue of the broadcast being issued when it was. Now, that is a point that the Prime Minister made on the day. And the Prime Minister went on to say that we had made representations to the Chinese government, both in Canberra and in Beijing, and indeed between our Foreign Ministers, about that fact. Now, you know, the point was also made that China has complied with its international obligations and we've not suggested otherwise, but we've made the point that when we do exercises of this kind, we give 12, 24, sometimes 48 hours notice, but importantly, the notice that we give is such that any plane which is yet to take off has an ability to plan a route around the exercises that we're undertaking. And that opportunity was is not given to those commercial planes which were flying across the Tasman on that day. And that is a point that the Prime Minister made at the time.

LANE: Mr. Marles, thanks for talking to AM.

MARLES: Thanks, Sabra.