Meeting in the value-sphere (John Howard and George W. Bush)

The Australian ^ | 21st July 2005

[naturalman1975]

THE man of steel has met his mate in Washington to exchange compliments and little else, beyond the possibility of our troops in Iraq staying on for a longer tour of duty. But the absence of any immediate announcement following John Howard's discussion with George W. Bush is not surprising. It was a meeting of leaders who are allies and personal friends to affirm shared objectives. Inevitably, the enemies of the alliance will argue the meeting was another example of Australian obeisance. Nonsense. The Prime Minister, like Paul Keating and Bob Hawke before him, rightly recognises the alliance is the bedrock of our national security. But while we need the Americans much more than they need us, Mr Howard has managed to maximise the benefits the alliance provides us, for minimum outlay. Even on the measure of our own limited military resources, our commitments to the war on terror are tiny. With just 1400 service people in the Middle East, and another 150 returning to Afghanistan, our military is nowhere near as stretched as the Americans or the British. Yet this modest commitment has made Mr Howard a hero in Washington. Mr Bush also had to spend political capital to push the free trade agreement through Congress. While enemies of an open economy bemoan the deal, increased access to the world's largest economy is a bigger win for us in the long term than improved access to Australian markets is for the Americans.

Nor is Mr Howard ignoring our national interest to protect these established benefits in dealing with the US. Certainly the Prime Minister rightly criticised the weekend warning by a Chinese general that China could attack American cities with nuclear weapons if the US went to war to defend Taiwan. But this will not sway Mr Howard from pursuing mineral and energy exports to China. And with World Trade Organisation talks imminent, Australia's commitment to free trade in agriculture is still much stronger than that of the US. But the values that bind us to the Americans are much more important than the issues on which we differ. This also applies to Mr Howard's next stop on his tour, to see British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Although we live in very different parts of the world, Britain and Australia are allies in the war on terror and bound by history and a common political code. Any opponent of our alliances who wants to argue our ties with the US and Britain are race-based, and that Australia is just the junior member of the Anglo-sphere, is plain wrong. They need to notice the other leader lionised in Washington this week – the leader of the world's largest democracy, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. All these old, and emerging, friendships are based in shared values. Mr Howard is not visiting an Anglo-sphere but a value-sphere.