It is to amaze; the belief that Australia is on the right track with China policy.
"[The address] dealt with China's obvious importance but was less China-centric than many of Rudd's offerings. I thought she treated the relationships with Japan, India and Indonesia quite well, for example.
"She went out of her way to reject, at least implicitly, Hugh White's thesis that our economic and strategic interests cannot be reconciled: 'Strong in the Asian century, with an ally in Washington and respect in Beijing' was nicely put, I thought.
"She was robust on the importance of Australia maintaining strong defence capabilities and delivering on the 2009 white paper, which had been questioned recently by the opposition defence spokesman, ill-advisedly in my view; we will probably need to spend more, not less, on defence."
Emphasis added.
This wonderful policy enlightenment they mention depends on too may “ifs”. If only the 2009 White Paper had worth. It does not.
I wonder what Gillard and friends think of this?
2 comments:
All this Australian Government stuff will "work" until it doesn't.
And when it doesn't we will find our soverignty deeply compromised and australian lives lost.
Historically, Australia has been sucked into conflicts in SE Asia through alliances with the Brits and the US. British hegemony in the region outlived its welcome and US 'primacy' is also now arguably inappropriate considering the economic growth and military capacity improvements of regional nations.
The continued somewhat unwelcome US presence in SE Asia obviously aims primarily at peddling arms sales, which will of course continue to foster tensions among regional powers. Alas; America seems hugely reluctant to recognise that she can no longer afford about 24 percent of national expenditure to be defence related, as the bastion of the US economy. Concentration of her military related capacity (that must shrink) would be more appropriate in the SW Pacific region, beyond China's perceived 'first island chain'.
Australia owes America a huge unrepayable debt for US WW2 sacrifices and we should demonstrate strong support for US defence related activities in the SW Pacific region. But we should also be forthright with our highly-valued allies by advising against continued military presence in the SE Asia region. Majority of nations in that area of the world are now sufficiently advanced to sort out their own regional problems.
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