Clinton Says Australia, U.S. Must Boost Their Leadership in Pacific Region

By Nicole Gaouette - Nov 7, 2010

The U.S. and Australia begin talks today on further aligning foreign policy goals and deepening defense ties, including possibly increasing U.S. use of Australian military bases.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd lead the talks that will focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the peaceful uses of space, counterterrorism and cyber security. The so-called AUSMIN forum brings the foreign and defense ministers from the countries together for annual discussions.

The leaders from the two nations are “going to look for new opportunities” to work together, Clinton said yesterday before today’s talks begin in Melbourne.

This year marks AUSMIN’s 25th anniversary and the 70th year of formal relations between Australia and the U.S. Those milestones come as Australia and other Asia-Pacific nations are adjusting to China’s rising power and President Barack Obama and Clinton work to reassert U.S. leadership in the region.

Australia and the U.S. are aligned through the ANZUS Treaty signed in 1951 between the two countries and New Zealand. Australia has 1,550 soldiers in Afghanistan after withdrawing its troops from Iraq in 2009. The U.S. and Australia also collaborate on intelligence-gathering and combating sea piracy.

Australians will use the discussions to shore up their alliance with the U.S. and through it, their security, said Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based policy group.

“There’s a big debate going on in Australia about how they look out for their own interests in light of the changing dynamic in the region with China rising,” Lohman said in a telephone interview. “There’s some anxiety about what exactly the world is going to look like in 30 years.”

Military Ties

Rudd said Nov. 6 that his country would be happy to deepen military cooperation with the U.S.

Australia would “welcome the United States making greater use of our ports and our training facilities, our test-firing ranges,” Rudd said at an appearance with Clinton soon after her arrival in Melbourne. “That has been the case in decades past and will be the case for decades in the future.”

Prime Minister Julia Gillard told local media yesterday that closer military cooperation serves Australian interests.

“It does give the possibility, of course, for further joint exercises, further collaboration,” Gillard said on Nine Network television.

After U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Clinton, Rudd and Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith meet for the AUSMIN talks, they are expected to issue a communiqué outlining areas of agreement.

Clinton is taking part at the end of a two-week tour of the Asia-Pacific to reaffirm U.S. engagement there. The trip, Clinton’s sixth to the region since taking office, included stops in Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, China, New Zealand and energy-rich Papua New Guinea.

Obama is currently visiting India, the first stop on a four-country, 10-day tour in Asia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Melbourne at ngaouette@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Austin in Tokyo at billaustin@bloomberg.net; Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net