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SINGAPORE: Australia has asked for military talks with China and is comfortable growing closer to the Philippines, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit.

China and the Philippines are locked in confrontation in the disputed South China Sea and their encounters have grown more tense as Beijing presses its claims to shoals in waters that Manila says are well within its exclusive economic zone.

Australia has stepped up its presence in the region and a joint amphibious exercise with the Philippines at Palawan island in August was Australia’s biggest outside its own borders last year.

Australia has also said its recent encounters with China’s military fell short of being safe and professional, and Marles said he discussed the issue with Chinese defense chief Dong Jun on the sidelines of the conference on Saturday.

“The substantive request that we had out of the meeting with China was to grow the defense dialogue,” Marles told Reuters.

“We really want to get it ultimately back to where it was before it was stopped, and that would be at the level of our chiefs of defense force and our secretaries of defense meeting annually.”

Marles also held talks with Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue.

“We definitely think that this is a moment where our relationship with the Philippines is really being taken to a level it’s never been before, and we very much welcome that,” said Marles.

“What we’re now seeing is a strategic dimension to that relationship being put in place, and that’s something that we greatly welcome, and we see this as growing even further.”