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February 22, 2008 By Jim Mannion, Agence France-Presse
ABOARD A US AIR FORCE JET -- US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he expects continuity in US-Australian relations under a new Labor government that has moved quickly to bring home its troops in Iraq.
Gates and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who were travelling to Canberra for two days of security talks, will be the most senior US officials to visit Australia since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took office, ending 11 years of conservative government.
They will sound out the new government about "their view of the world," as Gates put it to reporters in Hawaii before departing for Australia, the first stop of a trip that will also take him to Indonesia, India and Turkey.
"We anticipate there will be a great deal of continuity. We have a lot of common interests. We need to initiate an ongoing senior level dialogue," Gates told reporters on the flight here.
Australia announced earlier this week it intends to pull out a third of its 1,500-member force from Iraq by mid-year and shift from a combat role to an new approach that emphasizes training, reconstruction and civil affairs.
Australia, along with Britain, has been Washington's most steadfast ally in Iraq and Afghanistan despite deepening public opposition that helped propel Rudd to power.
Gates said the new government has given no indication that it will lessen its commitment Afghanistan, where nearly 1,000 Australian troops are serving.
The discussions come at a time when the Pentagon and its commanders in Iraq also are approaching a decision on the pace of US drawdowns from Iraq.
The 155,000-strong US force is scheduled to shrink by about 20,000 troops by July, but US commanders have pressed for a pause in further redeployments to see whether Iraqi are capable of assuming greater responsibility for security.
Gates suggested that strains on Australia's army, which he said has 50 percent of its force deployed in trouble spots around the world, was a major factor in its decision to bring home 500 troops from Iraq.
"Continuity doesn't mean there won't be change to tactics or approaches to certain problems," Gates said. "What I was referring to was continuity in the close relationship between the United States and Australia, and vice versa, for a long time."
Where the Australian government is headed "is one of the things we'll find out," he said.
The US officials were expected to meet with Rudd during the visit, and with their foreign and defense counterparts in an annual conference to review bilateral relations and share perspectives on Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands, and China.
"Both of us look forward to our meetings with the Australians on this subject, because Mr. Rudd himself is a China expert," Negroponte said.
"So that is an issue that is going to be on the agenda in terms of exchanging views and analyses about the relationship with China," he added.
The start of Gates' round-the-world trip was punctuated by the shooting down of a defunct US spy satellite over the Pacific in a demonstration of the US missile defense system.
It was unclear what impact the shoot-down would have in the region.
China shot down a weather satellite in low earth orbit on January 11, 2007, in an anti-satellite test that drew an international outcry.
But Gates said the shoot-down showed that the billions of dollars spent on a missile defense system had paid off.
"A side benefit of yesterday's action is to underscore that the money that Congress has devoted to this has resulted in a very real capability," he said.
February 22, 2008 By Jim Mannion, Agence France-Presse
ABOARD A US AIR FORCE JET -- US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he expects continuity in US-Australian relations under a new Labor government that has moved quickly to bring home its troops in Iraq.
Gates and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who were travelling to Canberra for two days of security talks, will be the most senior US officials to visit Australia since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took office, ending 11 years of conservative government.
They will sound out the new government about "their view of the world," as Gates put it to reporters in Hawaii before departing for Australia, the first stop of a trip that will also take him to Indonesia, India and Turkey.
"We anticipate there will be a great deal of continuity. We have a lot of common interests. We need to initiate an ongoing senior level dialogue," Gates told reporters on the flight here.
Australia announced earlier this week it intends to pull out a third of its 1,500-member force from Iraq by mid-year and shift from a combat role to an new approach that emphasizes training, reconstruction and civil affairs.
Australia, along with Britain, has been Washington's most steadfast ally in Iraq and Afghanistan despite deepening public opposition that helped propel Rudd to power.
Gates said the new government has given no indication that it will lessen its commitment Afghanistan, where nearly 1,000 Australian troops are serving.
The discussions come at a time when the Pentagon and its commanders in Iraq also are approaching a decision on the pace of US drawdowns from Iraq.
The 155,000-strong US force is scheduled to shrink by about 20,000 troops by July, but US commanders have pressed for a pause in further redeployments to see whether Iraqi are capable of assuming greater responsibility for security.
Gates suggested that strains on Australia's army, which he said has 50 percent of its force deployed in trouble spots around the world, was a major factor in its decision to bring home 500 troops from Iraq.
"Continuity doesn't mean there won't be change to tactics or approaches to certain problems," Gates said. "What I was referring to was continuity in the close relationship between the United States and Australia, and vice versa, for a long time."
Where the Australian government is headed "is one of the things we'll find out," he said.
The US officials were expected to meet with Rudd during the visit, and with their foreign and defense counterparts in an annual conference to review bilateral relations and share perspectives on Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands, and China.
"Both of us look forward to our meetings with the Australians on this subject, because Mr. Rudd himself is a China expert," Negroponte said.
"So that is an issue that is going to be on the agenda in terms of exchanging views and analyses about the relationship with China," he added.
The start of Gates' round-the-world trip was punctuated by the shooting down of a defunct US spy satellite over the Pacific in a demonstration of the US missile defense system.
It was unclear what impact the shoot-down would have in the region.
China shot down a weather satellite in low earth orbit on January 11, 2007, in an anti-satellite test that drew an international outcry.
But Gates said the shoot-down showed that the billions of dollars spent on a missile defense system had paid off.
"A side benefit of yesterday's action is to underscore that the money that Congress has devoted to this has resulted in a very real capability," he said.