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Australia friends with both US, China: Turnbull

CANBERRA — Australia does not have to choose between the United States and China, said Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday, just as some officials in Canberra are questioning if the country should pivot towards Beijing.

CANBERRA — Australia does not have to choose between the United States and China, said Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday, just as some officials in Canberra are questioning if the country should pivot towards Beijing.

“We have a staunch, strong ally in Washington — a good friend in Washington — and we have a very good friend in Beijing,” said Mr Turnbull after meeting his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang. “The idea that Australia has to choose between China and the United States is not correct.”

Last week, Mr Stephen FitzGerald, Australia’s first Ambassador to China, called on Australia to make China its primary focus of diplomacy and economic policy, and to “implant in our education the study of China and Chinese”.

Many Australians too are wondering whether it is time to pay less attention to the US — its most important security partner — and engage more with China, after US President Donald Trump’s combative phone call with Mr Turnbull last month and the Trump administration’s rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. China is Australia’s most important trading partner.

The US has questioned aspects of the rapidly evolving commercial relationship between the Chinese and Australians, including Australia’s decision to allow a Chinese company, Landbridge, to secure a 99-year lease over the strategically important Port of Darwin. Darwin has become a training hub for US Marines in northern Australia.

Mr Li, who on Wednesday warned Australia against “taking sides, as happened during the Cold War”, agreed with Mr Turnbull.

“We believe China-Australia cooperation will bring good to other countries and regions, and this cooperation will not be targeted at any third party,” he said, referring to the US.

Mr Li’s visit to Australia and New Zealand, which started late Wednesday, is the first by a Chinese prime minister in 11 years. Both leaders yesterday oversaw the signing of bilateral agreements. One of the deals allowed Australian beef producers unfettered entry to the Chinese domestic market.

In reference to widespread concerns over China’s activities in the disputed South China Sea, Mr Li said Beijing is not militarising the waterway, claiming defence equipment it has installed on artificial islands is mostly for civilian use.

“Even if there is a certain amount of defence equipment or facilities, it is for maintaining the freedom of navigation,” he said. “Because without such freedom, or without stability in the South China Sea, the Chinese side would be among the first to bear the brunt of it.”

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about US$5 trillion (S$7 trillion) worth of trade passes each year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the sea. Australia is not a claimant but it has supported US-led freedom-of-navigation activities in the region.

Mr Li said China “never has any intention to engage in militarisation in the South China Sea”, adding that installations — which include airstrips and missile batteries — are “primarily for civilian purposes”. He said aircraft and ships that transit through the South China Sea were from trading partners with Beijing, “so one can easily imagine how many Chinese interests are at stake here”. AGENCIES

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