Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, gave a speech at the National Press Club on Monday. Its title was “Australian Interests in a Regional Balance of Power.” The address was largely understood to be a response to recent attacks on her stewardship of Australia’s foreign policy and committing to the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine deal this year.

The speech didn’t contain any groundbreaking revelations, or spark the intraparty fight many media commentators seemed to be hoping for. It did, however, highlight the increasing doublespeak of Australian foreign policy in this era of looming conflict.

Wong argued that the US security guarantee in the Indo-Pacific is what has allowed the region a long stint of peace and wealth. Australia, she maintained, was committed to this status quo. But this “balance,” as she labeled it, and the prosperity of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, are now threatened by a regional power with dominating ambitions: China. Wong argued that the very nature of the region is being redefined. While warning against commentators who “love a binary,” she nonetheless insisted that only two options exist for the region’s future: