Australia to focus on defense ties with northerly neighbors

Australia to focus on defense ties with northerly neighbors

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP): Australia is likely to restrict
future military intervention to an arc of islands stretching
through Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the southwest
Pacific, in the most significant policy review in decades,
sources and reports said on Tuesday.

Canberra's much-vaunted defense White Paper to be released
Wednesday is to spell out what the Australian Defense Force
should be able to do, where it should operate, what equipment it
will need and how it will be paid for over the next 10 years.

Sources said the government was likely to embrace a
defense-of-Australia posture as the most rational and affordable
option as opposed to fighting further afield.

The Australian newspaper said a more modest role is foreseen
in Southeast Asia with intervention restricted to peacekeeping
and coalition operations and the fulfillment of commitments under
the Five Power Defense Arrangements with Singapore, Malaysia,
Britain and New Zealand.

Further afield, notably the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan
Strait, Australia would plan for only a token contribution.

Prime Minister John Howard has already moved to allay concerns
from some of Australia's near neighbors about increases in
defense spending, saying Canberra had to improve its capabilities
because of growing unpredictability in the Asia-Pacific.

But he stressed no one need be concerned because Australia was
a "peace-loving country".

"I have believed for many years and certainly for all of the
time that I've been prime minister that this country does need to
spend more on defense," he told the Australian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry last week.

"I don't say that aggressively. This is not a belligerent
country, this is a peace-loving country, it is a country that has
never sought to impose its will by force on others." Howard said
Australia had to face up to its regional responsibilities.

This year Australia has served in East Timor while its navy
played a key role in evacuating people from the Solomon Islands.
Instability in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji has also
helped shape decisions.

Howard said pumping more money into defense would ensure
Australia could react to changing circumstances quickly.
"It is clear that the circumstances of our region now are less
predictable than perhaps 10 or 20 years ago," he said.

"It will be clearly understood and seen by our neighbors in
the region not as an act of belligerence, but rather the prudent
response of a very responsible middle power with very strong
liberal democratic traditions."

Undisputed media reports point to a 500-million-dollar (US$270
million) increase to an 11.5-billion dollar budget for 2001 with
annual three percent increases in real terms for up to 15 years
-- reversing more than a decade of spending decline.

The big winner is expected to be the army which could get new
attack helicopters while 3,000 temporary troops employed during
Australia's deployment in East Timor are tipped to become
permanent, bringing total armed military strength to 53,555
personnel.

The navy is in line to get a new air warfare destroyer but
plans to replace frigates after 2013 are in doubt.

The paper, which follows three months of public consultations,
is also expected to lay the foundations for tackling serious
morale problems relating to work conditions amid slumping
recruitment rates.

A recent senate hearing revealed the army and air force were
achieving only about 85 percent of recruitment targets while the
navy was struggling to get 60 percent.