Vol. 79/No. 29      August 17, 2015

The Australian rulers are caught in a historic bind of trying to defend their interests by seeking closer military alignment with Washington while pursuing their largest export market and growing source of investment in China.

The large-scale amphibious and air assaults at training grounds near Darwin in the north and Rockhampton in the northeast involved 30,000 troops, 21 warships, 200 aircraft and three submarines. These included a U.S. carrier strike group and marine expeditionary unit. Forty Japanese soldiers were embedded with U.S. forces, while 650 New Zealand personnel were integrated with thousands of Australian troops.

“Era of US dominance in region ‘coming to close’” was the main headline of the July 13 Australian, a national newspaper, as part of its coverage of the live-fire war games, called Talisman Saber 2015. The quote was from a joint report by official military analysts from Canberra and Washington released that day, titled “The ANZUS Alliance in an Ascending Asia.” It noted that “the era of … uncontested U.S. maritime supremacy” in the Pacific appeared to be ending. ANZUS is the 1951 security pact between the rulers of Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

A key part of the “pivot” by the Barack Obama administration to the Asia-Pacific is its push to expand U.S. access to facilities across Australia, which has a strategic location for Washington. Among other factors, it lies south of the Strait of Malacca, which channels one-third of world shipping between the Pacific and Indian oceans. The Australian rulers are trying to bolster their historic U.S. alliance while also allying with the governments of Japan, India and Indonesia to counter China’s rise.

The report noted that “in higher intensity regional crises, access to air and naval bases” across northern Australia and in the southwest near Perth were “important to overall U.S. strategy.”

More than 1,000 U.S. Marines already on rotation through Darwin will be built up to a force of 2,500 next year. This would become an amphibious expeditionary group with warships and planes. The Australian naval base near Perth is proposed as a base for a large U.S. aircraft carrier group as well as nuclear submarines.

During a July 12 visit to the war games, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the Chinese government understands the U.S.-Australian alliance and “that has never stopped a very strong friendship with China.”

In a more candid admission of the Australian government’s contradictory relations with Beijing, Abbott said to German Chancellor Angela Merkel last November that Canberra was driven by “fear and greed.”

The contradiction for Canberra between its main military ally versus its largest trading partner has surfaced in tensions over rival trade and financial pacts, intensified by the global capitalist crisis. The Australian government recently joined the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, a Beijing initiative. The ANZUS report notes this was despite pressure from the Obama administration against participation by its allies.

The Australian rulers have just signed a Free Trade Agreement with China, similar to those with other East Asian countries, while also joining the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Canberra has stalled on signing TPP over a disagreement with Washington on access to the U.S. domestic market for Australian sugar exports.  
 
 
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