UNITED STATES: Australia and US talk up 55 year alliance
Updated
Australia's foreign minister has met the US Secretary of State in California for talks with both sides talking up the strength of the 55-year-old alliance. Alexander Downer says Australia will join the US and Japan in research on the creation of anti-missile system, to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Presenter: Graeme Dobell
Speakers: Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer; US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice
DOWNER: Australia's alliance with the United States is the bedrock of our foreign policy; our strategic choices and our security.
DOBELL: Alexander Downer, in California at the invitation of Condoleezza Rice - a visit, the Foreign Minister says, to underscore the closeness and depth of the relationship. The US Secretary of State paid tribute to the 55-year-old alliance with Australia.
RICE: Ours is an alliance not of governments but of peoples, one that reflects the deep bond of enduring ideals and shared history, colonial origins, democratic development, and shared political and cultural values. Most importantly, ours is an alliance that remains strong and unbending regardless of domestic political concerns in Washington or Canberra. Yes, we've had our differences, as any allies will, but we raise them freely and we address them openly as friends and we are stronger for it.
DOBELL: Mr Downer says Australia stands by the US as an act of mateship, but also from a sense of moral clarity, about America as a force for good.
DOWNER: Active, sustained, intense engagement by the United States in the Asia Pacific is indispensable for the security and growth of our region. We believe that purposeful, determined, committed American leadership is equally indispensable to the peace and prosperity of the entire world.
DOBELL: And beyond that, there was a tribute to the leadership and courage of President George W. Bush.
DOWNER: He's been a good friend to us, President Bush. He's been a good friend to Australia. And his diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region has been very effective and we appreciate that. And we appreciate the way he has successfully handled relations with China and with Japan and with India, major powers in our region, and it's important to us that he and, obviously, the Secretary of State handle those relations well.
DOBELL: Mr Downer confirmed Tokyo reports that Australia is to join with Japan and the United States in three-way cooperation on research for the creation of an anti-missile system, to shoot down ballistic missiles. Australia and Japan both committed to the US program in 2003, and Australia has signed a 25 year research agreement with the US. Turning that cooperation into a trilateral approach is seen as a logical next step, but Australia's Foreign Minister says the anti-missile system is unlikely to be deployed on Australian soil
DOWNER: I don't think that's likely anytime in the foreseeable future. I don't think that we're likely to have missile defence systems established in Australia as such. But we do support the concept of missile defence and we do work with our friends and allies on that issue. We've never made any secret of that.
