Labor vows closer links with SE Asia

Labor vows closer links with SE Asia

AUSTRALIA: Australia's opposition Labor Party vowed to build
closer links with nearby Southeast Asia and boost the country's
military to help fight terror if it wins elections later this
year.

A Labor government would consider sending the navy on joint
patrols in Southeast Asia, the party's defense spokesman Kim
Beazley said in an interview published in the Sunday Herald Sun
newspaper.

But Australia must first win back the trust of its Asian
neighbors, he said. Labor has accused conservative Prime Minister
John Howard's government of watering down relations with Asia
while tightening ties with Washington.

"They do not trust us," Beazley said of Southeast Asian
nations. "This is not as it was in (former Labor prime minister)
Paul Keating's day. The question is how do we rebuild that level
of trust."

Beazley also said creating a new infantry battalion would
boost counterterror efforts.

Howard later said extra troops were unnecessary and asserted
that links with Southeast Asia were already close. --AP