| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| Howard Sees US-Japan-Australia Security Role in Pacific Region |
| 2005-04-01 |
| EFL: Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Australia's prime minister has outlined a vision of "the three great Pacific democracies" - the United States, Japan and Australia - playing an increasingly important security role in the region, even as Australia and Japan draw closer and take on larger out-of-area responsibilities. In a major foreign policy speech on Thursday evening, John Howard closely aligned Canberra with President Bush's drive to expand democracy in the Middle East, where Australia participated with Britain in the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. "We can choose to turn inward or we can lend a hand for freedom at a moment when the voices of democratic hope are being heard right across the Middle East - from Iraq to Saudi Arabia; from Lebanon to Egypt," he said in a speech at the Lowy Institute, a new foreign policy think tank in Sydney. Howard also ruled out the possibility of a quick withdrawal of Australian troops from the multinational coalition in Iraq. "We will not stay a moment longer than is necessary; and we will not leave a moment sooner than is sufficient." Much of the speech focused on Asia, and the challenges and risks ahead. "History will have no bigger stadium this century than the Pacific Rim," Howard said. He predicted that in the decades ahead, Asia would "assume a weight in the world economy it last held more than five centuries ago." But it was also home to the world's three most volatile flashpoints outside the Middle East - the Taiwan Strait, Korea and Kashmir. Howard disputed the view that the war on terrorism had diverted America's attention away from Asia. "If anything, the larger trend is towards Washington engaging more purposefully with Asia. This has led to a more balanced American worldview when compared with its understandably Eurocentric focus of last century." That, in turn, was beneficial to Australia as it sought to strengthen ties with Asia while intensifying its post-Cold War alliance with the U.S. "Compared with a decade ago, there is now a deeper appreciation of how close links with the United States are a plus -- not a minus -- in forging stronger links in Asia," said the prime minister, who has been in office since 1996. |
| Posted by:Steve |