US Senator John McCain on Tuesday urged more US-Australian military cooperation to deter Chinese aggression in the Asia-Pacific.
The senior Republican senator made the comments at a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who on Monday made her first visit to the White House since taking office last year.
Earlier, Gillard called for increased economic engagement in the Asia-Pacific, saying it was key to both nations’ future prosperity.
“I think the United States and Australia will be working more actively to make sure that there’s not any tensions in the region,” said McCain, the lead Republican on the Senate Committee on Armed Services.
McCain voiced concern over China’s 12.7 percent hike in defense spending for this year. He said the communist nation was conducting a military buildup and acting assertively in disputed regions such as the Spratly Islands — also claimed by several Southeast Asian nations.
Noting Beijing’s declaration that the South China Sea is its own “special zone,” McCain said the US and Australia should ensure that China observe the freedom of the seas.
“I do not predict any conflict, but I do say the best way to prevent that is for the United States and Australia to assert the basic principles of the conduct that all nations should adhere to,” the senator said.
He was speaking after touring with Gillard a photo exhibition on the 60-year-old Australia-US military alliance. Their forces fought together in the Vietnam War, and more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. When US President Barack Obama received Gillard at the White House, he declared that the US has “no stronger ally than Australia.”
The US retains a strong military presence in the Asia-Pacific, including major bases in Japan and South Korea, and says it will do so for decades ahead, when China’s investment in missiles, navy and air force will pose an increasing challenge to its predominance.
Australia could prove an important partner in sustaining the US military footprint.
On Monday, Gillard alluded to that when she said alongside Obama: “There is so much more to do together in the future, including cooperating as America looks at its force posture.”
While both nations eye China’s rising stature with a degree of caution, they also want a stable relationship with the emerging Asian power.
Australia’s exports to China of natural resources such as coal, metal and minerals helped Australia weather the global crisis. China is also a major trading partner and creditor of the US, holding about US$1.2 trillion in Treasury securities.
Gillard told the US Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday that Australia had emerged from the downturn as the world’s strongest advanced economy. She said the Asia-Pacific region was increasingly the center of global growth and would be “critical” for the future prosperity both of her nation and the US.
Yesterday, Gillard was to address a joint meeting of Congress.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils
RSS