Australian Minister of Defence Stephen Smith yesterday said Canberra would seriously consider trilateral military training with the US and China following the announcement of a US troop buildup in Darwin.
Smith said the move was suggested by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono following talks with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at last weekend’s East Asia Summit in Bali after Beijing criticized the troop boost.
“We don’t see it as something which would necessarily occur in the short term, but it’s a good suggestion, it’s an interesting suggestion,” Smith said.
“It’s a positive suggestion and one which I think in the longer term could fall for serious consideration,” he said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa expressed reservations about the plan to bring about 2,500 US Marines to northern Australia by 2016 to 2017, unveiled by US President Barack Obama during a flying visit to Canberra last week.
Natalegawa warned that it could inflame relations and create a “vicious circle of tensions and mistrust” in the region, urging transparency, particularly about the motives behind the move.
Indonesia is building up its own military cooperation with US forces.
The US and its allies have expressed concern over the intentions behind China’s military build-up and called for greater transparency.
Smith said Australia already did training and exercises with China and had completed joint live-firing drills with its navy for the first time last year.
“We’re working very hard with China and the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] to do precisely that, to do some training to do some exercises and we encourage China and the United States to do that themselves as well,” he said.
US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich said there was “a lot of variables,” but Washington was interested in strengthening military ties.
“For the broad brushstrokes yes, we want to work more with the Chinese military and we’re looking for opportunities to cooperate with all countries in the region,” Bleich told the Australian newspaper.
“If you have a lot of nations rising quickly and not understanding each other’s intentions you’re always concerned about the risk of a misunderstanding. You want to be prepared for that,” Bleich said.
The US and Chinese navies have held joint search-and-rescue drills. However, they do not stage joint live-fire drills like those the US has with South Korea.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS