Posted on 06/07/2004 3:01:05 AM PDT by kattracks
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Australia and the United States are close to an agreement that will allow the U.S. to have a key military training center on Australian territory.
An existing Australian base in the country's vast north will be upgraded by the U.S., and the two allies' forces will hold air, sea and land exercises from the center, Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said.
Speaking after meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Singapore -- where both attended a regional security conference -- Hill told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that an in-principle agreement could be signed at annual ministerial talks in Washington next month.
He said the plan was "to enhance mutual capability, ensure inter-operability and to assist a critically important ally."
In a bid to pre-empt predicted opposition, Hill said the joint combined training center would not be termed a U.S. military base, and equipment and personnel would not be based there permanently.
"I think the confusion in Australia has been that people have ... assumed that the Americans would want to be basing forces in Australia, but we're not actually very conveniently located for any potential theater," he said.
The Pentagon is currently carrying out a major reassessment of troop deployments around the world, which will affect where and how U.S. forces are stationed and used.
While in Singapore, Rumsfeld spoke at a press conference about the need for "a more agile arrangement" rather than having armed forces "stuck in a static position."
Hill explained that with modern capabilities, "you don't need the same level of forward deployment that you once needed."
Hill did not identify the location for the training center, but said it would be in Queensland or the Northern Territory.
Prof. David Horner of the Strategic and Defense Studies Centre at the Australian National University said Monday a base near Katherine, south of the city of Darwin, could serve the purpose well, having already been used for joint exercises with U.S. Marines.
The Tindal Air Base hosts a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Hornet fighter squadron, and boasts numerous hangars and concrete bunkers, as well as aircraft firing ranges, he said.
Since the late 1980s, it has been used as an Australian "forward base," he said, noting that Darwin is closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney.
Tindal was also a stop for Special Forces troops on the way to East Timor during the crisis in the then Indonesian-occupied territory in 1999, and about 250 Air Force personnel from the base were deployed in Iraq during last year's hostilities.
Horner said what was now being proposed was not a huge step beyond what has already been happening in the way of joint Australia-U.S. maneuvers. But there would nonetheless be opposition.
"It will be controversial," he said. "It will be presented by the opponents as an American base in Australia. Others will say, 'There's nothing different from what's been going on for years; no-one's complained about it.' But the terminology will be the key thing here."
Horner said he expected the official opposition Labor Party to be among those critical of the plan.
With an election due later this year, Labor and Prime Minister John Howard's ruling coalition have been clashing over policies relating to the alliance with the U.S. and Australian involvement in Iraq.
Horner stressed that despite the political differences, Labor did not want to discard the alliance.
"The American alliance being a key feature of Australian defense policy is something that has pretty well bipartisan support."
The other likely source of any criticism is Southeast Asia, and especially the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia, both of which have been unhappy with the notion that Australia could play a "deputy sheriff" role for the U.S. in the region.
Horner said Australia's ties with the U.S. were not necessarily always regarded in the region as negative, however.
Australia is also involved in regional alliances such as the "Five Powers" defense pact involving Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
"When we come into these arrangements within the region, we came as a country that's coming in with the support of the United States. So we then come with a bit more clout than we'd normally come with.
"That's a positive aspect to the alliance [with Washington] that the countries in the region don't usually complain about."
Reaction to Hill's comments Monday was quick to come from Australian "peace activists."
A non-governmental organization called the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition said that if the plan for "yet another United States military base in Australia" went ahead, it would plan protests.
"Australia already has too many U.S. military facilities on our soil," coalition spokeswoman Dr Hannah Middleton said. "We do not want another one."
The plan would have negative economic, social and environmental effects, and would not Australian security, she charged.
Middleton accused the Howard government of putting Australians in danger "by signing up as a front line collaborator with the U.S. military."
Australia has been a close ally in the war against terror; sent forces to Afghanistan and Iraq; is a partner in President Bush's Proliferation Security Initiative; and plans to participate in the U.S. missile defense program.
A joint Australia-U.S. facility at Pine Gap in the outback serves as a satellite tracking station.
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Nice map for geographical orientation. Is the south central portion of the continent (area north of the Bight) as sparsley populated?
I enjoy reading about Australian explorer's adventures in the 1800's. IIRC no one believed the first guy who crossed the Bight alone.
Strategy shift.
Ya know, I bet the next war we go to is in the Philippines or Indonesia or Malaysia.
That would make Australia a good staging base, Guam is kind of tiny...
I was just joking. I'm sorry if I offended you.
That map is funny!
"remote Australia"
"VERY remote Australia"...
When you have a country almost the size of the mainland United States (300 million people) and only have 20 million people living here, well, lots of areas are remote.
Especially since the vast majority of Australians live in cities or urban areas near the coastline.
Don't worry about it, just buy the next Aussie you meet a beer or two and we'll call it even.
I will gladly buy any right-thinking Aussie a beer or three.
I'm actually planning a 4th of July get together for my boss and a couple of USN/USMC types that I work with. BBQ, beer, wine (Aussie of course), friendship, and plenty of less than PC comments about our enemies (Islamofacists, the French, the media, the left...) Last years was outstanding (as was the hangover the next day).
The military bases we now have are constantly labored with silly restrictions and threatened with closure. The only thing that saves some of them is they are already there and have been for years. However, they aren't expanding any nor are new ones being built for today's changing needs. It would take many years and untold dollars to jump through all the environmental impact statements and comply with all the laws required, if that would even be possible, which it probably wouldn't.
Intensive and realistic military training requires a lot of room and flexibility. We no longer have that despite the fact we have lots of land and potential places. So, we now have to go all the way around the world to seek new training possibilities.
It will cost a ton of unneccessary money to send our troops 12,000 miles for a few weeks of good training, but that is peanuts compared to the prohibitive costs and time of establishing a new military training center in, say, Oregon or Nevada - despite the fact the Federal Government already owns the huge tracts of land and airspace. They just can't do anything with it except protect it (unless, of course, one is talking about the ongoing depredations of illegal aliens despoiling it).
I appreciate your hospitality toward our forces. I was on Diego Garcia in '92 and the HMAS Sydney stopped by for a visit. I got to visit the ship and I got a nifty polo shirt with the ship's name on it. In fact, I'm wearing it this minute :-)
My first overseas port visit was to Guam (oh so many years ago) when I was a midshipman. I've never had more fun with my clothes on in my life (and there was a clothesless period there too. American ladies like the Aussie accent... oh to be young and single again!).
While we were there I drew the short straw and got duty as the Assistant Officer of the Day. A long and boring day of ship board duty was cut short when the CO needed a partner for a game of golf with some USN Admiral (CINCPAC something? The head guy for the area around Guam.)
Being the good junior officer I was, I played golf (badly), drank beer with the brass as we walked (then staggered) around the course, then helped the Admiral's Flag Lieutenant CARRY the Admiral to his car. My CO was able to walk but he was walking one hell of a zigzag plan.
I gotta get me to Texas! :)
Ping to China.
It's like WWII all over again - we got to keep the LOCs from the US to Australia flowing & safe.
I was in Perth in 1980 and 81, you guys were the best!
So were the gals, too...
I was born in Perth (dad was working for NASA in Carnarvon, Western Australia at the time)... it always amuses me when I tell people that, and they say, "Oh, what was your favourite pub? ("bar" for our American FRiends...)" I smile and say, "Well, I left at eleven months of age and haven't been back since, so it's not like I got a chance to find one." By the way, Race, I missed you by seven years. ;-)
I think I ended up seeing more of the USA in the year or so I was there, than I have of my own country.
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