Australian Minister of Defence Stephen Smith yesterday said Canberra would seriously consider trilateral military training with the US and China following the announcement of a US troop buildup in Darwin.
Smith said the move was suggested by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono following talks with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at last weekend’s East Asia Summit in Bali after Beijing criticized the troop boost.
“We don’t see it as something which would necessarily occur in the short term, but it’s a good suggestion, it’s an interesting suggestion,” Smith said.
“It’s a positive suggestion and one which I think in the longer term could fall for serious consideration,” he said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa expressed reservations about the plan to bring about 2,500 US Marines to northern Australia by 2016 to 2017, unveiled by US President Barack Obama during a flying visit to Canberra last week.
Natalegawa warned that it could inflame relations and create a “vicious circle of tensions and mistrust” in the region, urging transparency, particularly about the motives behind the move.
Indonesia is building up its own military cooperation with US forces.
The US and its allies have expressed concern over the intentions behind China’s military build-up and called for greater transparency.
Smith said Australia already did training and exercises with China and had completed joint live-firing drills with its navy for the first time last year.
“We’re working very hard with China and the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] to do precisely that, to do some training to do some exercises and we encourage China and the United States to do that themselves as well,” he said.
US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich said there was “a lot of variables,” but Washington was interested in strengthening military ties.
“For the broad brushstrokes yes, we want to work more with the Chinese military and we’re looking for opportunities to cooperate with all countries in the region,” Bleich told the Australian newspaper.
“If you have a lot of nations rising quickly and not understanding each other’s intentions you’re always concerned about the risk of a misunderstanding. You want to be prepared for that,” Bleich said.
The US and Chinese navies have held joint search-and-rescue drills. However, they do not stage joint live-fire drills like those the US has with South Korea.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS