Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith dismissed suggestions yesterday that China had been angered by plans for a US troop build-up in his nation, describing its response as moderate and measured.
The plan to post 2,500 Marines in northern Australia by 2016 to 2017 was unveiled by US President Barack Obama during a lightning visit to Canberra last week and immediately labeled “inappropriate” by Beijing.
However, Smith said the official response had been “quite measured,” adding that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard had “cordial and forward-looking” talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit.
“China, for a long time, has said that it doesn’t believe there should be military alliances, but it understands that Australia has a military alliance with the United States,” Smith told commercial television. “My own judgment is that the response — official response from China — has frankly been a measured one. It hasn’t been over the top.”
“We continue to make the point publicly and privately to China that there’s no inconsistency between a military alliance ... with the United States and a comprehensive bilateral relationship with China,” Smith said.
Smith said it was very important to divorce commentary on the issue from official responses and that it was “really what they say at the top level” that mattered, not editorials in state-owned media outlets.
“I think we need to understand very carefully what we’ve done here, which is a continuation of training exercises that we do with the United States,” he said.
“The United States has in our judgment been a force of peace, security and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region for us and that will continue,” he added.
Smith said the deal unveiled by Obama included greater access for US military aircraft to northern Australia and “in the longer term” expanded ship and submarine visits to the nation’s west coast.
However, he dismissed media reports that the two countries were planning a joint Indian Ocean military base on remote Cocos Island, near Indonesia, saying “that discussion has not occurred.”
“Down the track in the future, there may well be some possibility or prospect of greater utilization of Cocos Island, but that’s well down the track,” he said. “In the first instance, our Indian Ocean arrangement will be, in my view, greater naval access to our premier Indian Ocean naval base — Sterling Base in Western Australia.”
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