No need to choose China, US sides: Carr
The Australian, 11 August 2012
FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr says Australia doesn’t have to choose between backing the United States or China and shouldn’t be anxious about China building a stronger military.
Former prime minister Paul Keating earlier this week called for Australia to loosen its ties with the US and shift its focus towards China.
Mr Keating said Australia had underestimated the economic and human rights improvements in China in the past few decades and shouldn’t presume US and Australian interests were the same.
Senator Carr said it was not a matter of choosing one side or the other.
“We have a security relationship with the US in good working order,” he told Sky News on Friday, adding it gave a lot of comfort to Australians and projected Australian influence not only to America but around the world.
“But we’ve got a splendid economic relationship with China which is being broadened into strategic co-operation as well.”
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The “economic interdependency” between the US and China was important when it came to disagreements between the two countries.
“That’s a useful bit of ballast because whenever there might be a disagreement between the two sides … America and China will think first and foremost of their economic relationship,” Senator Carr said.
The Chinese leadership viewed their country as “the Middle Kingdom sufficient unto themselves” and did not aim to conquer or colonise other countries.
But China needed to be careful not to alarm its neighbours, as it “inevitably” grew and modernised its military as it grew economically.
“And America should be careful not to display an anxiety about an inevitable accretion of more strategic power by China,” Senator Carr said.
“It’s important we don’t react with undue anxiety.”