Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 24, 2008
Pg. 4
By Mark Mazzetti
CANBERRA, Australia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and top Australian officials insisted Saturday that the security alliance between the United States and Australia had not frayed despite Australia’s recent pledge to remove all combat forces from Iraq.
Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, announced late last year that the country’s 550 combat troops in Iraq would leave by mid-2008, fulfilling a pledge he made during his campaign against John Howard, whom Mr. Rudd defeated in November’s parliamentary elections.
But Mr. Gates and his Australian hosts accentuated the positive, talking about the many foreign policy matters on which the two countries agree. Mr. Gates praised the work of the roughly 1,000 troops Australia has deployed in Afghanistan, and Stephen Smith, Australia’s foreign minister, said things were “effectively business as usual.”
Mr. Gates traveled to Canberra with John D. Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, for a slate of annual security and diplomatic talks between the United States and Australia. Yet the visit was just as important as a way for the administration to take the measure of Mr. Rudd, who had spent some of his campaign criticizing Mr. Howard for marching in lockstep with President Bush.
Mr. Gates was the first member of the Bush cabinet to meet with Mr. Rudd since he was elected. Mr. Rudd is a longtime critic of the Iraq war, and opinion polls in Australia showed that only about a third of Australians supported keeping troops in Iraq.
During a news conference on Saturday, Mr. Gates wore a blue sling on his right arm, which he had fractured after slipping on ice at his home in Washington.
Since taking office, Mr. Rudd has shown a willingness to break with the Bush administration on matters besides Iraq. He reversed the policy of his predecessor by signing the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, making the United States the only industrialized nation that has not ratified the agreement.
Still, Australian officials emphasized how essential Australia’s alliance with the United States was to their country’s security and said they did not intend to reduce Australia’s commitment of troops to Afghanistan.
They also brushed aside questions about whether Australia’s growing economic ties to China would influence the country’s defense policy toward Beijing. Mr. Rudd is a former diplomat who was stationed in Beijing for several years and speaks Mandarin.
Mr. Smith, the foreign minister, even pointed out how much the Bush administration had tied the American economy to the Chinese market.
“Australia’s economic engagement with China is only beaten by the U.S.’s economic engagement with China,” he said.
February 24, 2008
Pg. 4
By Mark Mazzetti
CANBERRA, Australia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and top Australian officials insisted Saturday that the security alliance between the United States and Australia had not frayed despite Australia’s recent pledge to remove all combat forces from Iraq.
Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, announced late last year that the country’s 550 combat troops in Iraq would leave by mid-2008, fulfilling a pledge he made during his campaign against John Howard, whom Mr. Rudd defeated in November’s parliamentary elections.
But Mr. Gates and his Australian hosts accentuated the positive, talking about the many foreign policy matters on which the two countries agree. Mr. Gates praised the work of the roughly 1,000 troops Australia has deployed in Afghanistan, and Stephen Smith, Australia’s foreign minister, said things were “effectively business as usual.”
Mr. Gates traveled to Canberra with John D. Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, for a slate of annual security and diplomatic talks between the United States and Australia. Yet the visit was just as important as a way for the administration to take the measure of Mr. Rudd, who had spent some of his campaign criticizing Mr. Howard for marching in lockstep with President Bush.
Mr. Gates was the first member of the Bush cabinet to meet with Mr. Rudd since he was elected. Mr. Rudd is a longtime critic of the Iraq war, and opinion polls in Australia showed that only about a third of Australians supported keeping troops in Iraq.
During a news conference on Saturday, Mr. Gates wore a blue sling on his right arm, which he had fractured after slipping on ice at his home in Washington.
Since taking office, Mr. Rudd has shown a willingness to break with the Bush administration on matters besides Iraq. He reversed the policy of his predecessor by signing the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, making the United States the only industrialized nation that has not ratified the agreement.
Still, Australian officials emphasized how essential Australia’s alliance with the United States was to their country’s security and said they did not intend to reduce Australia’s commitment of troops to Afghanistan.
They also brushed aside questions about whether Australia’s growing economic ties to China would influence the country’s defense policy toward Beijing. Mr. Rudd is a former diplomat who was stationed in Beijing for several years and speaks Mandarin.
Mr. Smith, the foreign minister, even pointed out how much the Bush administration had tied the American economy to the Chinese market.
“Australia’s economic engagement with China is only beaten by the U.S.’s economic engagement with China,” he said.