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.