Australia said yesterday it would join a controversial US-led program designed to shoot down ballistic missiles, strengthening its military ties with a key ally despite a likely backlash in Asia.
Announcing the decision, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the system would deter rogue states from acquiring missile technology but he gave no details of possible costs or how Australia would participate.
"This is a strategic decision to put in place a long-term measure to counter potential threats to Australia's security and its interests from ballistic missile proliferation," Downer told parliament, adding Britain and Japan supported the program.
While he did not mention North Korea by name, the country has a nuclear weapons program and has ballistic missiles capable of hitting US ally Japan. North Korea is also a major exporter of missile parts and technology.
Critics have said the technology is unproven and expensive and could trigger a regional arms race.
A Japanese newspaper said yesterday Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi intended to introduce a missile defense system to protect Japan from the threat posed by North Korea's ballistic missiles. Koizumi denied any decision had been made but said the issue must be tackled soon.
The Bush administration has earmarked US$50 billion over the next five years to build a missile defense with an initial, rudimentary capability to shoot down incoming warheads.
The multilayered system is still under development and could include interceptor rockets to smash into a missile soon after takeoff, high-powered lasers and ship-based antimissile rockets.
Some fear the program could spark a new arms race but some defense experts view Australia as an essential component because of a US monitoring station at Pine Gap in the central Australian desert.
Canberra's move to join the program -- as well as the US Joint Strike Fighter project to build an advanced fighter-bomber -- could irk Asian neighbors who already accuse Canberra of playing "deputy sheriff" for Washington in the region.
Downer said it would strengthen the military ties with the US that his conservative government has bolstered since coming to power in 1996.
Analysts said that joining the program added "another layer of intimacy" to the US-Australian relationship that would not go down well in the region.
"It is dangerous inasmuch as it seems that when the United States acts, Australia follows by reflex," said foreign policy expert Michael McKinley from the Australian National University.
"It creates a sense that Australia is only reluctantly a part of the region in social and economic terms," he said.
Downer, aware of regional sensitivities, said the government had already briefed some Asian nations of its involvement and would keep its regional partners informed of its participation.
Defense Minister Robert Hill said that under the program, Australia could include expanded cooperation to detect missiles at launch, acquiring ship or ground-based sensors, and research, but ruled out a ground-based missile defense system.
He made no mention of possible contracts for local firms.
Defense expert Aldo Borgu from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank said it remained to be seen if the so-called "Son of Star Wars" technology would actually be able to stop missiles in flight.
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