10 March, 2011
US senator John McCain has warned that Australia and the US must collaborate to counter China's rise as an Asia Pacific military power.
Julia Gillard has backed his concern, saying she expects increased military co-operation with the US as well as close diplomatic engagement with China.
After opening a photographic exhibition commemorating the 60th year of the ANZUS treaty, Senator McCain, who was the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2008, said yesterday he was disturbed by recent Chinese claims that the South China Sea should be seen as "a special zone".
"They have been acting very assertively in the region," he said. "The fact is they are a rising power and they are a military power.
"Now that doesn't mean to me that there is going to be conflict . . . but it does mean that Australia and the United States must ensure that basics like freedom of the seas are observed by the Chinese."
Senator McCain said China had recently boosted its defence budget by 12 per cent, and added that the true size of its military budget was unknown. He said no one should be in any doubt that China was building up its military strength, and the best way Australia and the US could respond was to assert basic rights such as freedom of passage.
The Prime Minister said Australia and the US were working closely together as the US continued its defence posture review, which is designed to reconfigure the country's global military footprint in line with changing circumstances such as the increasing influence of India and China.
"I think Australia and the US need to co-operate on all strategic challenges, and what is happening in our region is largely being defined by the rise of China," Ms Gillard said.
"So we constructively engage with China. That's our policy [and] it's the policy of the US. We also have frank discussions with China, where we have differences."
Asked whether she expected the rise of China would lead to more US military resources based in Australia or using Australian ports, she said US deployment was a matter for the Americans.
"But, yes, we are collaborating in that global posture review, and the outcome of that will be known later this year, so we will be able to comment with some certainty then about the deployment of US military assets," she said.