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First US marines
arrive in Australia
Reuters, SYDNEY
About 200 US marines began a six-month deployment in Australia yesterday, in the
first wave of a build-up of 2,500 troops due eventually to rotate through a de
facto base in Darwin, as the US deepens its military presence in the
Asia-Pacific region.
The deployment of marines to northern Australia has sparked concern in China,
where officials have questioned whether it is part of a larger US strategy aimed
at encircling it and thwarting the country¡¦s rise as a global power.
¡§We see this very much as responding and reflecting the fact that the world is
moving into our part of the world, the world is moving to the Asia-Pacific and
the Indian Ocean. We need to respond to that,¡¨ Australian Minister of Defence
Stephen Smith said in Darwin, where he met the marines off a charter flight.
¡§The world needs to essentially come to grips with the rise of China, the rise
of India, the move of strategic and political and economic influence to our part
of the world,¡¨ Smith said.
The tropical port of Darwin is 820km from Indonesia, allowing the marines to
respond quickly to any humanitarian and security problems in Southeast Asia,
where tension has risen because of disputes over sovereignty in the South China
Sea.
When the deployment was announced in November last year by US President Barack
Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, they cast it as a way to
increase bilateral military cooperation and training and said it was not an
attempt to isolate China.
¡§The notion that we fear China is mistaken. The notion that we are looking to
exclude China is mistaken,¡¨ Obama said, adding that ¡§we welcome a rising,
peaceful China.¡¨
Australia, a firm US ally with a 60-year-old ANZUS strategic and military
alliance that includes New Zealand, counts China as its biggest trading partner
and is careful not to antagonize it.
After the initial announcement, China said the moves could erode trust and fan
Cold War-era antagonism.
However, strategic and international relations analyst Rod Lyon, from the
Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said China, India and Indonesia had been
well briefed on the deployment, and should not be overly concerned.
¡§I don¡¦t think it does much to deter China or position the US against China,¡¨
Lyon said. ¡§If we are trying to be antagonistic towards China from Darwin, we
are starting a long way back.¡¨
¡§China understands that ANZUS is important to Australia, that China does not get
to pick Australia¡¦s allies, and that our alliance with America will unfold in
new ways in the 21st century. While you occasionally get some over-excited
reactions out of Chinese media, I think official views in Beijing are more
moderate and relaxed,¡¨ Lyon said.
Like China, Australia is looking to develop its military capabilities to reflect
its increasing economic power and is focusing on its northwest coast, where its
offshore oil and gas sector is booming. It is considering spending up to US$100
billion to build a long-range submarine fleet, buy new fighter aircraft and
build its naval presence.
James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor for IHS Jane¡¦s Defence Weekly, said that while
the deployment was small, it would give the US more options in Asia, where it
already has bases in South Korea, Okinawa and Guam, as well as strategic
relationships with Singapore and the Philippines.
¡§A company of marines [rising to 2,500] is a very small footprint, and compared
to a permanent homeporting or homebasing of naval or aviation assets, which the
US could have proposed and the Australians could have accepted, this has quite a
limited force-projection capability, and so can be seen as a modest statement of
intent,¡¨ Hardy said.
The first group of marines, from the 3rd Marine Regiment based in Hawaii, will
engage in exercises with the Australian Defence Forces and also will travel to
other nations in the region for training and exercises, a US Marine Corps
spokesman said.
The force is expected to grow in size over time to become a 2,500-person US
Marine Air Ground Task Force, the spokesman said.
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