【澳大利亚广播公司】Keating urges positive China stance

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Keating urges positive China stance
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/03/2615556.htm

By David Weber for AM


Posted 6 hours 25 minutes ago Updated 5 hours 58 minutes ago


Paul Keating warns against Australia becoming an accessory tucked under someone else's armpit. (AAP: Stanley Warick)
Audio: Keating warns against defensiveness towards China (AM)

The former prime minister Paul Keating has warned against Australia taking a defensive stance towards China.

Mr Keating has taken a swipe at the Federal Government, saying its defence white paper makes ambivalent references about China.

Speaking at Curtin University in Perth last night, Mr Keating saidChina's dominance would be inevitable, because the world's greatesteconomies have always become strategic powers.

But the former prime minister said this would be positive for the region and there would be opportunities for Australia.
Mr Keating said that unlike previous prime ministers, he always believed the rise of China was certain.

"This great state, with its profound sense of self and thewherewithal to make a better life for its citizens - 1.3 billion ofthem - has eased itself into a major role in world affairs," he said.

"A role which I believe will be an altogether positive one for the world."

Australia would need to make adjustments, as China would not allow itself to be cast as a client of the US.

But Mr Keating said the power shifts would provide openings.

"For a country like Australia, they nevertheless hold out hugeopportunity. This is why I believe we must always be outgoing," he said.

"We must be alert, dexterous and positive and never defensive. Forthese reasons I found myself at odds with some of the text of theGovernment's 2009 defence white paper."

'Makes no sense'

Mr Keating said it made no sense for Australia to think of its national security in defensive terms.

He said the white paper struck an ambivalent tone about Australia's likely strategic circumstances.

"Including, for instance, failing to give us an indication as towhether it foresaw the growth of China's military capabilities was anatural and legitimate thing for a rising economic power," he said.

"Or whether to the contrary, it was something we should regard as athreat and for which we should plan. It was not clear on this point."

He said Australia could not know what new order might develop in the future.

Mr Keating asserted China's rise would probably occur alongside thegrowth of other regional powers and this would not be a bad thing.

"A region of this kind might turn out to be as peaceful and asprosperous for Australia as the one we've had since the end of theVietnam War," he said.

"A place where all powers have a role and where Australia is open to have whatever relationship it wants with any one of them.

"But then again it might not turn out like this. The region maybecome more problematic and this is why a defence policy is a must-havecontingency against adverse developments."

Foreign policy

But Mr Keating said a defence policy needed to be woven into foreign policy.

"Too often, Australia has created problems for itself when its defence policy has gotten ahead of its foreign policy," he said.

"And of course the prime examples of that are Vietnam and Iraq.There, defence policy made the commitments, not the foreign policy."

The former prime minister urged Australia to support co-operativeregionalism and said Australia could move towards a more independentforeign policy stance.

"We should never return to a posture of fear or reaction of the kind that prevailed during the Menzies years," he said.

"Nor should we look to position ourselves as a comfortable accessory tucked under someone else's armpit.

"If John Curtin had lived in these times, I'd be pretty sure he'd be saying much the same thing."

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