Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday his government held a less dramatic view of US-China strategic tensions than a predecessor who warned of a potential hot war before US presidential elections in November.
Former prime minister and China scholar Kevin Rudd wrote in the Foreign Affairs journal this week that the risk of armed conflict between the United States and China in the next three months was especially high.
Morrison said his administration had expressed similar views in a defense policy update last month when he announced 270 billion Australian dollars ($190 billion) in new warfare capability spending,