24/11/2017
Australia is concerned that China’s military expansion in the South China Sea will lead to clashes in Asia and wants the U.S. to remain involved in the region, according to a new policy paper released by the government.
The power balance would shift to Beijing should the U.S. withdraw its political, economic and security ties, according to the foreign policy white paper, the first in 14 years. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the document “clear-eyed and hard-headed” and said Australia would seek a bigger role in shaping regional affairs.
“In the past we could safely assume that the world worked in a way that suited Australia,” Turnbull told reporters on Thursday in Canberra. “Now power is shifting and the rules and institutions are under challenge,” he said. “We are experiencing unprecedented prosperity and opportunity but the liberal, rules-based order that underpins it all is under greater stress than at any time since its creation in the 1940s.”
On China, Turnbull said: “This is the first time in our history that our dominant trading partner is not also a dominant security partner.”
Read more at Bloomberg
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