Australia’s uneasy reliance on China for economy, and USA for ? defense security
“China is the elephant in the room for Obama and Gillard,”
Obama Meets Gillard as Embattled First Leaders Shadowed by China
Resources, Bloomberg, By Jason Scott and Margaret Talev – Nov 13, 2011 President Barack Obama arrives this week in an Australia whose economy is reliant on billions of dollars in mineral and energy contracts from emerging superpower China and whose security depends on an alliance with the U.S. — China’s biggest rival.
“This relationship between Obama and Gillard has some warm, fuzzy atmospherics — their interests are congruent,” said Michael McKinley, a lecturer in international relations at the Australian National University in Canberra. “China is the elephant in the room for Obama and Gillard,” said McKinley, whose analysis has been used in parliamentary testimony.
While Obama will stop at the non-commercial cities of Canberra and Darwin in a visit commemorating 60 years of postwar ties, the most recent trip by China’s premier focused on business. Wen Jiabao signed a long-term contract for A$100 billion ($101 billion) in uranium during a 2006 visit, …..
“Australia is basically a Western country in Asia with a strong history and alliance with the U.S. and massive trade ties with China,” said Peter Kenyon, professor of economic policy at Curtin University’s Graduate School of Business in Perth. ….
China bought $2.32 billion worth of uranium from Australia from 2006 to 2010, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as part of the contract signed during Wen’s April 2006 visit….
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of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
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