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