US-China war not inevitable, Albanese says, urging countries to ‘prevent a worst-case scenario’

Anthony Albanese at a press conference in Singapore on Friday. The prime minister told a regional security summit there: ‘Australia’s goal is not to prepare for war but to prevent it.’ Photograph: Roslan Rahman/EPA

Anthony Albanese has warned against “harmful” assumptions that the US and China are heading towards an inevitable war, and called for “practical structures to prevent a worst-case scenario”.

The Australian prime minister said a war in the Indo-Pacific would be “devastating for the world” and used a keynote speech to a regional security summit in Singapore to urge all countries to uphold peace and stability.