One of Australia's closest neighbours has declared it is willing to join Chinese-led military exercises but insists it would only do so if the activity is "not directed at any perceived hostile entity".
Timor-Leste's President Jose Ramos Horta has raised the prospect of his nation's tiny military taking part in drills led by the People's Liberation Army, as negotiations with Australia over the critical Greater Sunrise gas project drag on.
President Horta's comments, which come during Australia's federal election campaign, will draw attention in Canberra, which has been uneasy about a sweeping partnership agreement Timor Leste has signed with Beijing.
That agreement commits the two countries to "enhance exchanges at all levels between the military and police forces" and "strengthen cooperation in such areas as personnel training, equipment technology, the conduct of joint exercises and training, police affairs and law enforcement."
In a wide-ranging interview with Timorese broadcaster RTTL, the president said his country already took part in joint military exercises with a host of countries even though it only had a "very small" force, saying the same principle should apply to China.
"We have participated in all the joint military exercises that are led by Australia, US, we participate to the extent that we can, we (have) a very small force, but it shows our commitment," President Horta said.
"But if we were invited to some Chinse military exercise, so long as the military exercise is not directed at any perceived hostile entity, we would participate (just) as we participate in military exercises with Indonesia, with Japan etc."
Timor Leste's president has previously accused Western nations of being paranoid about China's security ambitions in the region, and has insisted he has no intention of building security ties with Beijing.
He's also repeatedly said he'll turn to Chinese investors to fund the Greater Sunrise gas project if Canberra can't convince the corporate partners in the project, including Woodside, to back the government's ambitious plan to pipe oil and gas to Timor Leste for processing, rather than to Darwin.
In return, some Australian officials have privately accused the president of playing the China card in order to maximise leverage with Canberra and corporate partners.
Australia in 'permanent contest' with China in Pacific
More broadly, Australia has been locked in what the Foreign Minister has described as a "permanent contest" with China in the Pacific and has been intent on trying to stop Beijing establishing any sort of military foothold in the region.
[MAP]As part of that effort, it's been racing to build up policing and military ties with Pacific nations, and earlier this year announced it would begin negotiations on a defence treaty, with neighbouring nation Papua New Guinea.
While China has managed to establish police cooperation ties with several regional countries, most notably Solomon Islands, the few Pacific nations with actual standing militaries have so far been wary of direct defence engagement with Beijing.
That's partly because they don't want to cause any alarm in Australia, which remains by far the largest development partner for the region.
Australia also already conducts regular military exercises with Timor-Leste.
A Department of Defence spokesperson said Australia and Timor-Leste "have a strong bilateral defence relationship and cooperate as close neighbours, who share a common interest in the stability, security and prosperity of our region".
"We are proud to be Timor-Leste's largest security and development partner and will continue to work with Timor-Leste to strengthen our long-standing partnership," they said.
"Australia respects the sovereignty of Timor-Leste."
But Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie said if the president's comments were confirmed they were "deeply troubling."
"The foreign affairs minister and the defence minister must come clean about whether they were notified about our close partner's willingness to participate in Chinese military exercises," Mr Hastie said.
"Labor has either been caught flat-footed again, or they are not being transparent with the Australian people."
