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Rice to discuss China, Iraq in Australia
By Sue Pleming (Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-15 15:43
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seeking to cement a growing security
relationship with Australia, will discuss China's emergence as an Asia-Pacific
power on a visit starting on Thursday.
She will also thank Australia for its support in Iraq during the three-day
trip. With violence increasing in Iraq, Washington is anxious to retain as many
foreign troops there as possible. Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson
promised this week his nation's contingent would stay well into 2007.
But Australia has taken a less aggressive stance than the United States
toward Beijing on most issues, from human rights to the economy, and Washington
is concerned that the country is being overtaken by what one US official called
"China fever."
Rice is to join foreign ministers from Australia and Japan on the last day of
her three-day trip on Saturday for talks expected to focus on Iraq, China and
North Korea, US officials said.
"From Australia's point of view, China has become a giant fountain of money
and Australia wants to lap up some of that money just like other countries in
Asia," said Dana Dillon, an Asia specialist at the Heritage Foundation in
Washington.
"They are very reluctant to do something that would stop that flow of money
from China," he added.
MILITARY BUILDUP
Rice is particularly concerned about China's military buildup, telling
reporters she wanted to ensure Beijing's military might was not "outsized" for
the region.
China's 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army is the world's largest
standing force. Its official defense budget is set to rise 14.7 percent to 283.8
billion yuan ($35 billion) in 2006, Beijing has said.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has been a little more
restrained, describing Saturday's trilateral security meeting as an opportunity
to discuss harnessing the growing power of China to the advantage of the region
and managing its rise so that Beijing can play a positive international role.
"(The security talks) shouldn't be construed by China as a policy of
containment of China or in any sense hostile toward China. There are plenty of
issues for us to talk about other than China," Downer told Australia's Sky News.
Australia earns billions of dollars annually from sales of iron ore and other
raw materials to China's mushrooming economy.
Much of Rice's trip will focus on Iraq, with a speech on the issue on Friday
as well as a visit to Australian troops at Victoria Barracks in Melbourne. She
will also lay a wreath at the city's Shrine of Remembrance.
As an original member of the "coalition of the willing" that supported the
U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Australia was one of the first countries to
commit forces and still has about 1,300 troops stationed there, mostly in the
south of the country.
Critics of Prime Minister John Howard, who has been satirized as the U.S.
"deputy sheriff" for Asia because of his close ties to President George W. Bush,
have asked why Australia needs to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq when there are
threats closer to home.
As in the United States, recent opinion polls in Australia have shown
declining support for involvement in Iraq.
Part of Howard's loyalty to the Bush administration and its "global war on
terrorism" is possibly linked to his being in the United States on September 11,
2001 when hijackers rammed planes into buildings in Washington and New York.
"I think that personal connection of time and place is sometimes often washed
over but it is very significant," said Australia's ambassador to the United
States, Dennis Richardson.
While U.S.-Australian ties are close, there has been no American ambassador
in Canberra for more than a year.
However, a State Department official said Washington had now named Robert
McCallum, a longtime lawyer friend of Bush, to the vacant post. He declined to
say whether the appointment had been timed to coincide with Rice's visit.
Rice had originally been scheduled to visit Australia in January but canceled
the trip when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon became gravely ill.
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