Monday, 16 August 2010
-
Australia Do Not Need China Will Focus on India and Affirm US Primacy
Australia not 'starry-eyed' on China, focus on India
Madeleine Coorey
16 August 2010
16:59
Agence France Presse
AFPR
English
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010 All reproduction and presentation rights reserved.
Australia's centre-left Labor government Monday pledged to deepen its ties with Asian countries if re-elected, but warned it would not be "starry-eyed" about top trading partner China.
The foreign policy statement comes as Prime Minister Julia Gillard leads opinion polls by the slimmest of margins ahead of Saturday's election at which conservative leader Tony Abbott could end Labor's hopes for a second term.
"The Gillard Labor government will build on the momentum established over the past three years to add even more depth to relationships with our key regional partners," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement.
Addressing what it has long described as the "Asia Pacific century", the government said its relationship with China was among the country's most important.
But a Labor government would not overlook differences with the Asian superpower which has raced to become the country's largest export market and two-way trading partner and is driving demand for Australian commodities.
Ties with Beijing have been tested since Labor won office in November 2007 by the arrest and jailing in Shanghai of Australian mining executive Stern Hu and Canberra's decision to grant Uighur dissident Rebiya Kadeer a visa.
"Labor is clear-eyed, not starry-eyed, in our assessment of China and our approach to the bilateral relationship," Smith said.
"Labor is committed to a mature relationship with China where any differences can be managed constructively," he added.
Smith said Australia had also agreed with Japan to manage differences on whaling -- which Canberra vehemently opposes -- so that it "does not impact on the rest of our strong and deep relationship based on shared interests."
On India, Australia's fastest-growing trading partner, Labor said it had placed that country at the forefront of international partnerships.
"We will continue to take the relationship forward so that it can realise its full potential," Smith said.
But he made no mention of selling uranium to the nuclear power, which Labor has previously rejected until India signs a global non-proliferation pact, but which the opposition has pledged to do if Abbott wins office.
Abbott's Liberal/National coalition has also vowed to strengthen its links to India, the country's eighth largest trading partner, if elected as well as focus on ties with the United States, Indonesia and Japan.
Elsewhere in Asia, the government said it had an excellent relationship with northern neighbour Indonesia and had improved relations with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and wanted to see democracy restored in Fiji.
But the statement affirmed that Australia's most important strategic partnership remains with the United States, which it said remains the bedrock of defence security and strategic arrangements.
Smith said Australia stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States in Afghanistan, and had strengthened the relationship despite pulling its combat force from Iraq shortly after taking power.
Much of the statement echoed the sentiments of former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking Sinophile whom Gillard replaced in June after he lost the support of the party's factional leaders.
"In our own region, we will play an active role in shaping the evolution of the regional architecture," it said.
-
email
- sent 0
