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Chinese warships arrive in Sydney

Two Chinese warships arrived in Sydney yesterday ahead of the first joint military exercises between Australia and the Asian nation, with officials saying more operations were planned.

Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said next week's joint exercises involving the Australian, Chinese and New Zealand navies signaled closer military cooperation between Beijing and Canberra.

"At this stage I would expect that primarily we would be looking at naval exercises but we will also be having discussions between our air force and obviously our army," Nelson told reporters.

"Some of those discussions have already commenced," he said as he welcomed the guided-missile destroyer Haerbin and supply ship Hongzehu into Sydney Harbor.

While the US has expressed concerns about China's increasing military muscle, Nelson said the joint exercises showed Beijing recognized it needed to be open and transparent about its growing capability.

"I think if people are looking for evidence of increased efforts by Chinese military and political leadership for transparency, look no further than the visit by these two Chinese warships to Australia and the fact that we'll be doing joint exercises with our navy and New Zealand," he said.

The three navies will conduct joint search and rescue exercises next week in the Tasman Sea.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) agreed at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Sydney earlier this month to hold annual security summits.

At the same time Australia -- which has strong trade ties with China -- sought to assure Beijing that new trilateral security talks it has entered into with Japan and the US are not aimed at isolating China.
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